


Witch’s Familiar

by Kazel_Menra



Series: Miraculous AU Stories [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Magical Mayhem, black cats are cool, familiar Chat, kitty Adrien - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-21 14:28:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 38,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16578266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kazel_Menra/pseuds/Kazel_Menra
Summary: Marinette is a clumsy witch, with almost no magical power, but has high hopes to one day be a certified stitch witch. Her first step towards her goal is summoning a familiar, but the real question is will she survive the test?





	1. Chapter 1

The unused back-street was smokey and magic scarred. It was the site of a battle bravely fought and badly lost, although that was what tended to happen when a mere child took on a grown adult in a battle by magic. Still, the end result could have been worse. Everyone had lived with only minor injuries, even though the man known as Hawkmoth had managed to scurry back into the shadows. Within moments of the man’s departure those same shadows parted to reveal a very odd sight. A large black cat burst from the depths, green eyes taking in the damage surrounding him. Riding atop his back, a small red humanoid fairy gasped, releasing his fur to fly into the air. 

“The children!” Tiki moaned, fluttering over to the dark haired child, pressing her delicate tiny hands to the child’s cheek. “We were too late, this was not supposed to happen.”

Plagg in his black cat form padded up to the girl, nudging her arm and hissing as he spied the purple butterfly on her forearm, just a few inches before her elbow.  
“It’s my fault. I should have never removed the other girl’s mark,” Plagg answered, eyeing the butterfly mark with a predatory eye. His lips peeled back as his black aura lit up his body, ready to destroy the mark that clung to the child’s skin.

“Don’t touch it Plagg!” Tiki hummed, her voice more than a little panicked. 

“Why? I can remove that flutter brain’s mark no problem,” Plagg answered, his aura flickering out while his body swayed impatiently on his paws. Tiki hummed in distraction as she zipped around the girl, looking for any serious injuries, and as he watched, she finally fluttered down to rest beside him. 

“If you remove it he will know and he will investigate. You know he didn’t come here and catch them unawares by sheer accident. Hawkmoth came here knowing what he would find. I’m surprised he didn’t try and reactivate the residue magic to see where the girls and your charge came from!” Tiki cried, swatting at Plagg’s nose as he sniffed the mark again.

“He couldn’t activate the residue magic, Tiki, he was probably too tired. This kit gave him a hell of a fight considering she is so young. I can smell the lightning magic she used and that’s after using her protection on the kit and probably her friend. Honestly, I’m surprised he even managed to lay the mark at all. He must have done something sneaky to manage it,” Plagg answered, not yet knowing how right he was.

“We can’t be exposed yet and we certainly can’t protect these children every day for the rest of their lives. If you remove this mark too he will know that it was by more than just chance,” Tiki hummed, reaching out to place her own tiny hands against the mark. 

It flashed a brighter purple under her touch and she gasped jerking back. It was a strong mark. One that bound the marked person’s magic, rendering them practically magic less in a world filled with it. It also drained the marked person of their magic, giving the person who cast the spell more power whenever they wished to call on it. Although, Tiki could feel that this mark hadn’t been set properly and what had been done was sloppily placed. The child’s own defensive magic was still fighting the mark’s anchors, since the child’s magic was far stronger than it should have been in one so young. Hawkmoth had made a mistake, one that would eventually give the child a chance to take her magic back. 

“So, we doom them to be separated for the rest of their lives and doom the girl to being a glorified battery?” Plagg demanded, his voice a hiss of fury. 

He wanted to go hunt Hawkmoth down. The only thing stopping him was the safety of the black haired child before him, also Tiki, and the kitten he had been given to train and protect. Another hiss slipped from him, ok, maybe he had a few things stopping him, but if he followed the trail now before it went cold there was a good chance…

“Don’t even think about it, we don’t have the firepower to take him out, and even if we did the magic might not dissipate if we don’t do this right,” Tiki snapped, tapping Plagg on the nose to break him from his thoughts.

“Fine,” Plagg grumbled, swiping a paw over his nose. In truth, he hadn’t wanted to start the hunt alone, anyways. Now, though, they had to decide what to do about the children. “You haven’t answered me about the mark though. She can’t break that mark on her own and the kitten’s power won’t fully mature without her. They are already bonded and her power reflects that. They need each other.”

“They do,” Tiki agreed, thinking hard how the marks worked. The young kitten was already bonded to the child’s power and that was helping to keep the mark from setting completely. If there was a way for the girl to keep the mark, without it inhibiting her power’s maturation and draining her completely… 

Tiki shivered, an idea running through her. Slowly, her aura surrounding her body began to glow as the idea began to turn into the purest form of magic. Her aura glowed a gentle red as she concentrated, feeling the flow of the spell cast in the butterfly mark. The flow told her what shape her own spell had to be to counter it and Tiki smiled as the shape took form in her mind. Wisps of light from the glow around her body began to pull away and slowly a net like structure began to form. It looked like a dream catcher more than a net and Plagg felt his own magic rise within him in answer to hers. The spell would allow the child to access her magic more freely than a bound person, and his kitten would be able to work off her magic as well when needed. It restricted the butterfly however and prevented it from draining her automatically all the time. The mark would only activate when Hawkmoth called specifically on her magic.

“Oh…” Plagg answered in understanding, his own black aura coming to life around him once more. Tiki reached out to him and Plagg let his magic flow freely to her as she used his destructive magic to weave a corrosion spell into her net. As she got older this would make the mark’s grip loosen, rather than tighten, and with any luck by the time Hawkmoth noticed anything amiss the children would be old enough to fight back on their own.  
The red net turned spotted like a ladybug and Plagg pressed his nose to the spell as Tiki pressed a palm to it. The spell flashed once, then sank into the child’s arm directly over the butterfly. The purple inky creature twitched and wiggled making the girl whimper, then it settled, changing to a black color. To the casual observer it now looked like an odd birthmark. 

Plagg’s green eyes rose to Tiki’s blue ones. 

“We will have to train them. She will have the hardest time of it, especially with the way you wove the corrosion spell in,” Plagg murmured.

Tiki nodded, fluttering back to the child’s face, her hands glowing as she healed the child’s wounds, since the mark wouldn’t drain her magic any further. “She can do it. She protected her friend and her partner although they can’t possibly understand the bond they already have. She has so much potential; this nasty akuma mark will actually make her a better witch in the end. Hawkmoth has no idea what he has started.” 

Plagg nodded then stretched his cat like form, seeming to unfold until a man stood in the cat’s place. “I’ll take her friend home and then I have to get back to my charge. He should stay unconscious till then, but with her protection spell on him I’m not sure my magic can keep him out for long.” 

Tiki giggled and a moment later she stood almost as tall as the man named Plagg, looking down at the now tiny child at her feet. “She pushed everything she had into protecting her friends. I think she has a Grimalkin in her family tree somewhere. Your kind is always so very protective.” 

Plagg grinned, as Tiki lifted the young girl up into her arms. “She definitely has some fairy with her small stature.” Then he frowned as he tried to pick up her friend, wincing at the crackle of magic that flared. Turning, he eyed the small girl whose bright blue eyes were half slitted, conscious if only just barely. “I’m not going to hurt her, kit, let me see her home safe.” 

Tiki hummed at the black haired girl in her arms and she sighed, eyes slumping fully closed. The magic blew out like a candle and Plagg turned back to the darker child, lifting her into his arms. “Train her well, Tiki. Otherwise, in a few years, we will have a disaster on our hands.” 

“They will fix the magic, Plagg, and find Nooroo. I can feel it,” Tiki answered, her aura shimmering into the visible spectrum once more as she wove a hiding spell. 

Plagg smiled at her, not needing the spell since his inborn magic hid him naturally from prying eyes. Then voices intruded as the magical energy spent there was finally detected by others. The crappy shield Hawkmoth had placed to prevent the kids’ escape had fully fallen apart, revealing a sudden wash of magic to the outside world. 

“Time’s up,” Tiki hummed and Plagg nodded. Together, they slipped into a side street, vanishing from view as witches and wizards alike rushed in to investigate.

In a world of magic, people were as different as the snowflakes that could fall from the sky. Some people had enough magical power to run spells for days without tiring, while others only had enough magic to see what magic was around them. Very few had no magic at all and those that didn’t, often found life rather difficult. Magical aptitude wasn’t the only thing that made people different from each other. Some people were also born with odd traits. These traits often showed up as animal markings, ears, tails, or sometimes even wings and were the result of people having children with a class of creatures called familiars.  
In truth, it isn’t as odd as it sounds. 

Creature was a loose term to describe what the true form of some familiars looked like. Although, just as there were different classes of power for humans, there were also different classes of power for familiars. They ranged from weak creatures that could only maintain an animal form and had no powers, to unique creatures that not only had special abilities but could also transform into humans themselves. Magic Scientists theorized that the world of familiars was actually a parallel world that humans could access due to the magic that was inherent in their universe. No matter how it was initially found, the world of familiars was now closely tied to the human realm. Children were now often a mix of both and almost all families had a blood tie to some familiar heritage. Scientists believed this mixing was the reason magic hadn’t yet died out in the human race, which had almost happened 1000 years ago when humans in the magical government tried to ban the breeding of people with their familiars. It was only when a powerful group of seven humans emerged from a mixed parent heritage of familiars and human that the ban was lifted. These seven humans had turned the world’s whole view of Familiars on its head, especially when they created the very foundations of the natural magic that everyone, even the weakest human, used today. Soon after it was found that magic once again was cropping up with more prevalence within the human race. This was the world Marinette Dupain-Cheng lived in.

Clumsy, funny, sweet, and pretty, these were all words that could be used to describe Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Powerful was not a word you would use to describe her, and yet as a child she showed all aspects of being a truly powerful witch. Not that many people knew or remembered this in the first place. As a child, Marinette had been far above her peers in all classes of magic. In fact, most of the time, she seemed to have so much magic she simply didn’t know what to do with it. Then, when she was eight years old, she had been involved in a somewhat mysterious incident, and from that moment on her powers went from extraordinary, to average, and as she got older, fell even further into the weak category. It wasn’t extraordinarily common, but sometimes things did happen like that. Some children were born with the ability to tap into all the power they could handle at a very young age and these kids showed fantastic magical potential, since their powers seemed to outstrip all of their peers. Then as they got older their magical abilities seemed to fade because their magic didn’t grow with them. Instead it remained the same.  
Unlike most people though, a lack of power didn’t bother Marinette in the least. Marinette was nervous when it came to having large amounts of power, since as a very small child she’d had several incidents of it getting out of hand. After the odd incident that she didn’t remember happened, and her power had faded, she no longer had trouble controlling the few spells she could use, so she didn’t mind her powers being at a mediocre level. Unlike some of her friends, she also no longer had magical accidents where her magic escaped her control. Considering her clumsy nature, she was always inherently grateful for that since as a very small child she had almost feared her power. Thankfully, Marinette had just enough magic to ease her way through what she really loved to do, designing. Her chosen field was that of a stitch witch, although she couldn’t call herself a witch at all quite yet. Only about a quarter of the human race could claim the title of witch or wizard and, depending on your class, it could be a title of prestige. To claim the title of witch one had to go through more years of magic schooling on top of regular classes and pass several series of tests. The first of these tests were held at the age of fourteen and it was the test of familiars. 

Out of all the tests, it was probably the simplest. All you had to do was summon a familiar to your side. This familiar was then bound to you, most of the time for life, although there were rare cases where one person could have upwards of two or three familiars. One odd, crazy little man had a reported ten familiars, but they were all of a basic non magical beast type that he used to steal baubles from unsuspecting strangers. He was called the Pigeon man and although police desperately tried to catch him, so far they hadn’t had any luck. For the most part, though, people had one familiar and summoning one, especially the first time, took quite a bit of magic. 

“Tiki, I’m never going to be able to do this!” Marinette moaned, hands in her hair as she freaked out about the coming test. 

Bottles and spools of thread spun slowly through the air as the red fairy Tiki fluttered over to where Marinette was having a meltdown. 

“Of course you will Marinette! You have plenty of magic to be able to do this and if you feel that nervous you can overlay the design with your special thread! Believe me you will be able to summon a familiar!” Tiki said, dodging a bobbin to settle in Marinette's hair. 

What she didn’t tell her was that technically she already had a familiar, and that the spell she would be casting in a week would simply be announcing that fact properly to her peers and teachers. The kitten Plagg was keeping track of had become a handful in the last few months, wanting to come to Marinette's side his own way, rather than the proper way. Thankfully, cooler heads had prevailed so far without magical restriction, and once Marinette laid the circle, the magic that connected the two of them practically guaranteed a successful summoning. 

Unable to hear Tiki’s thoughts, Marinette simply gave another moan and all at once the floating items clattered to the floor. Tiki patted her head, a wane smile on her lips. She had been with Marinette for six years now, happily training and watching Marinette grow as Plagg did the same for his kitten. At first it had been hard. Tiki had to remain a secret and trying to convince an eight year old that no one could know of her presence without scaring her had been a true challenge. For a while her parents were convinced that their daughter had an imaginary friend and Marinette, once Tiki had finally convinced her, simply rolled with it. Keeping herself a secret from Alya had been far more difficult, sometimes requiring a spell or two of hiding or forgetfulness but overall Marinette had done well. Thankfully, Marinette didn’t consciously remember what happened all those years ago in that back alley. Tiki knew she had nightmares sometimes, although as she got older the nightmares had faded, but Marinette had suffered magically because of Hawkmoth. The binding of her magic meant her power levels had never regained their proper strength which had caused a stir with both her parents and her teachers. Also because most spells were taught through active magic first, Marinette's measured aptitude for any magic in general had drastically dropped. Tiki had to help her find other ways to access her now blocked magic passively and although it made Marinette a better more creative witch now, it had damaged her self-confidence badly. It hadn’t helped that at first Tiki had to be extra careful not to catch Hawkmoth’s eye since, initially, he had watched the child closely. After all, not many children could hold off an adult magician and he seemed to realize that his mark hadn’t been properly placed. Fortunately, he could never get close to her and Tiki made sure Marinette was never alone without some kind of protection over her. As time passed though, Hawkmoth became bored with the girl. Her powers hadn’t panned out as he had hoped and these days he rarely even looked in on her once every few months.  
Tiki sighed, one thing she hadn’t yet been able to fix was Marinette's ability to completely freak out over the silliest things. This was a habit Tiki had noticed from day one when she had revealed her presence.

“Marinette…” Tiki tried again as one of her proximity spells chirped at her. “Someone’s coming,” she murmured, darting off to hide.  
Marinette remained where she was, slumped over her futon, refusing to move and see who was invading her space. 

“Girl. You are not throwing another tantrum are you?” Alya’s voice demanded, as she climbed into Marinette's room and saw the mess of items across the floor. 

“It’s not a tantrum, Alya, I’m just freaking out like a lot!” Marinette answered, keeping her face pressed into the fabric. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into taking this stupid test!”

Her best friend in the world was Alya, a dark skinned girl with fox ears instead of human ones and eyes that glowed amber when excited or mad. Her hair was mostly dark, although the ends naturally faded to a reddish orange color. Marinette suspected that when she summoned a familiar it would probably be of the lupine class, and Alya was also the reason that Marinette even considered taking the familiars test. Alya had encouraged her and helped her for years now and in truth the only reason Marinette was giving it a shot was she didn’t want to be separated from Alya yet. After this year, anyone who didn’t summon a familiar would be separated into their own classes and taught different studies. There were the rare few whose power bloomed late and were given a second try, but those were extraordinarily rare and those people also had to go through other rigorous tests. Very few people refused to try to summon, and those that did usually had no power to speak of. Even though Marinette was convinced she was one of those people, Alya was convinced Marinette would be able to summon a familiar. They had been friends for a very long time now and she had been with Marinette in the odd incident where Marinette seemed to lose touch with her magical power. Alya, on the other hand, seemed to find it. These days, Alya was the one who showed the greatest magical potential and could handle powerful magical spells, although she had no patience for memorizing them.

With a roll of her eyes, Alya sent her magic out passively, lifting the items from the floor to send them to their appropriate locations. Since they had been friends from the time they were practically babies, sometimes Alya’s patience for Marinette's spazz-attacks was more of a reflex than actual patience. “I don’t know why you are spazzing so bad. They measured all of our magic weeks ago and you have plenty to summon a familiar!”

At her words Marinette finally looked up. “Barely! I barely have enough magic to summon one and you and I both know how my power fluctuates! If it was using passive magic I would be fine, but this is active and what if on that day I don’t have the power! I’ll fail and people will laugh and, oh gods, it’s going to be horrible and I’ll have to leave and live like the pigeon man and…” 

Alya grabbed Marinette, cutting off her rambling and making her squeak as she pulled her into a hug. “Girl, you will be fine. You are the best witch in our class regardless of power. You have spells memorized that I don’t think I will ever master! Just use your thread and everything will work out fine. At worst I can let you borrow some of my power.” 

Marinette shook her head as she pulled out of Alya’s death grip. “I can’t borrow your power Alya, not for this at least. You know that summoning a familiar has to only use the owner’s power and if you try to use multiple sources, bad things happen.” 

Alya rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that’s the ghost story that they have told us all for years! You know Chloe’s going to try it anyways since her power, regardless of what she claims, is absolute crap. I say you give it a go first. Besides, with the way you can manipulate magic, you don’t have to put my power into the spell just use it to feed your power.” 

What Alya was talking about was a very rare skill that Marinette had developed. Most people could borrow power from another, or in rare cases steal it. However, that borrowed magical energy still contained the essence of the original user. Most spells had to be balanced when adding multiple people’s power to the mix, and delicate spells often went wrong when someone borrowed power but didn’t balance for the extra person’s essence. Marinette, however, could borrow power, but instead of having to blend the power into her own and contaminating her essence, she could incorporate it the same way a fire incorporates a new log thrown onto it. So far, Marinette was the only person Alya knew who could do that effectively and it was a skill Marinette had been trying to teach her for a while now. 

Again Marinette shook her head. “I need to stand on my own, Alya. If I can’t do this on my own, I really won’t be able to anything further, even if I manage to summon a familiar. Plus, if I summon one too strong, with excess magic, it can suck me dry.”

Alya opened her mouth, but Marinette put her finger to her lips to prevent her from speaking. “You can’t support two people all the time and you can’t hamper yourself for my sake. Once you get your familiar you will have to support them with your magic. We knew this day would come, Alya.” 

Alya scoffed pulling Marinette's hand down but at the mention of support her gaze softened. “You have always supported me, Mari. I don’t think I would have made it this far without you. I just want to help.” 

Marinette patted her friend on the back. They had been best friends since age five, when they first met on the playground. Back then Marinette had been the stronger of the two and when she had found the other kids picking on Alya, she had stopped them by hanging the bullies in the air. The bullies had been stuck like that till their parents had come to their aid, and the girls had been friends ever since. Marinette had continued being the stronger of the two until they were eight when it all changed, though neither Marinette nor Alya could quite remember what happened. The adults believed they attempted a spell neither could handle and Marinette had basically shorted out her power to pull them out of the spell. The weird thing was no one could figure out what kind of spell they had attempted and since the girls couldn’t remember, everyone was at a loss. The only lead they had was the fact that two odd individuals had brought the girls home before vanishing without a trace. Thinking about the past made the birthmark on her arm burn slightly and Marinette rubbed at it absently. Regardless of what happened, Alya had since then been the stronger caster, although Marinette was better at defense and powering things for long periods of time. The balance worked out well for the two of them, and for joint projects they always made sure to be placed together.

With a final sigh, Marinette climbed to her feet, seeing how her floor was neat once more. “Thanks for putting everything away, Alya,” she murmured, feeling a touch embarrassed at how she had made a mess. 

Alya waved her off. “You’re lucky I remember where you like everything placed. Now that you are better shall we head back to school? Lunch break is ending soon and we get our summoning schedule today!”

Marinette cringed at Alya’s words, but nodded with a hesitant smile. Today was the last possible day to back out of a summoning and Marinette knew Alya was going to be watching her like a hawk so she couldn’t sneak off to retract her name. Once you were given your summoning time you were stuck giving it a try.  
“Come on, girl! Let’s go!” Alya huffed, seeing the slightly panicked look in her eyes and dragged Marinette from her room. They were out the door in seconds and back at school faster than Marinette thought possible. It was like time had sped up since it sensed her reluctance to return. They arrived back into class as the warning bell began to ring, and they took their seats as the teacher walked back in.

“Alright everyone! In your seats, please! Now as you all know, summoning’s start tomorrow. I have the schedule here and please keep in mind that you will still have class and homework to attend to despite the half day status. Now, I will call your name and when I do your time and day of summoning will appear on the board behind me. When I am done calling everyone you will be allowed to collect your time stamps.” Their teacher called and after a moment of silence she began calling names. 

Marinette watched as the board filled up, flinching slightly when her name was called. After all the names were called, their teacher moved aside, giving silent permission for 30 people to crowd around the board in search of their names. Some people didn’t bother to get up simply levitating their papers to themselves. Others, like Chloe, had someone else get their slip. Marinette went to stand to go get hers when she saw the slip peel itself from the board and fly into her hands. 

“Thanks Alya,” Marinette said with a smile, happy that she wouldn’t have to brave the crush of bodies at the board. 

Alya waved her thanks off and flipped her paper open, fairly squealing in excitement when she saw her time. “Mari! I’m one of the first! I’m going to get my familiar tomorrow!” 

Marinette grinned, happy for her and with a deep breath opened her paper to see her own time. A knot formed in her gut when she read the words and time on the paper. Her summoning was on the last day at the earliest possible time slot. Fear swept through her as her mind demanded a second look, just to be sure. To the city of Paris, the week of summonings was a significant and exciting event. At the beginning of the week it was usually quiet since many people were still working and few students summoned since classes were winding down their times to fit in with the students’ schedules. The crowds picked up rapidly towards the third day of the week though, especially since the days became shorter and more students summoned. People showed up from all over the city to watch, and by the time the last days of the summoning hit, the stands were usually packed. With her being one of the last people to summon she would probably have nearly the whole city’s eyes on her. Seeing Marinette go ashen, Alya moved to ask what was wrong when a squall of rage filled the air. 

“I cannot believe where I have been put! This time is far too soon and I refuse to not have an audience!” Chloe squalled. 

Sabrina flinched next to her. “Chloe, it’s a lovely time a-and not having a lot of people means you can concentrate better. It’s also the day right after me! We can celebrate together when you finish your summoning.”

“No, I demand a better time!” Chloe snapped, and their teacher flinched as Chloe pinned her with a glare. Their teacher was a nervous creature and Chloe had intimidated her from day one. Their teacher’s mouth opened, clearly ready to say it was impossible to change, when Marinette found herself speaking. 

“I’ll switch with you,” she said and Chloe spun around, pinning a disgusted, haughty glare on her. 

“You?! I highly doubt you have any time worthy of me,” Chloe sneered, flipping her hair over her shoulder as her nose aimed itself at the ceiling.

Marinette felt a tendril of irritation run through her and for a moment she almost retracted her statement, but then the eyes of her classmates reminded her of how much worse it would be in front of hundreds of strangers. 

“I’m one of the last,” Marinette snapped instead, hearing several gasps echo around her. Having a spot on the last day was a fairly coveted spot, one that many people wanted and would often do favors to get. 

Chloe’s eyes went bright, the greed in them more than apparent, but she flipped her hand in the air to peer at her nails, feigning disinterest. 

“You’re not really allowed to switch…” their teacher called weakly, although no one heard her. Instead, Marinette was suddenly surrounded by other students all wanting to know if she would switch with them. 

“SABRINA!” Chloe snarled from behind the sudden crush of bodies and all at once several people found themselves shoved magically aside. Chloe strode through the vacant space and plucked Marinette’s slip of paper from her hands. 

“Here is your new and useless time,” Chloe hummed, tossing the paper at Marinette, before striding away. 

The crush of bodies followed her, clearly still eager for another shot at having Marinette's time slot. With a slightly shaking hand Marinette opened the paper and let a thankful rush of air flee from her lungs. Chloe’s time was on the second day in the second time slot, practically right after class had let out. It meant she had time enough to gather her supplies and it also meant that other than curious classmates, family, and a few diehards there would probably be very few people in the stands. 

Alya wrinkled her nose. “You sure that was a good idea?” 

Marinette shrugged. “I definitely didn’t want to go last and if I fail there won’t be as many people here to see with this time. Oh, I’m sorry, I should have asked if you wanted it first!” 

“Not to worry, Marinette, I want my familiar sooner rather than later and, besides, you are not going to fail, but when Chloe fails the whole city will see!” Alya whispered excitedly. “We have to go watch.” 

Marinette chuckled weakly, but nodded, unable to resist Alya’s excitement. At least as few people as possible would see her fail if she did and that was enough for Marinette. 

The rest of the day passed quickly and Marinette rushed home to inform her parents of the change in times between her and Chloe. On the main board at school her name would still read as being last since the teachers never bothered to keep track of all the time switches made between students. It was frowned upon to switch your time, but some people didn’t have a choice and their teachers truly didn’t care as long as someone showed up in the available time slot. Her parents were excited for the switch since they knew Marinette had been extremely nervous about the upcoming summoning. With it so close at hand she wouldn’t have as much time to stress herself out. Now all she had to do was prepare her materials, although the school provided most of the items that would be needed.  
Alya called her later in the evening, asking if Marinette would help her carry some summoning supplies with her in the morning. Marinette was happy to agree and after calming her over-excited friend down, she hung up to get to work on the bit of homework she had yet to complete. The moment she settled down Tiki came out to join her.

“I’m happy you were able to switch with someone,” Tiki said, fluttering down next to Marinette's hand. 

Marinette leaned back in her chair, the relief coming from her practically palpable. “Me too, Tiki, even if it was Chloe I switched with. I couldn’t imagine having to go out there and summon on the last day. Even if I am as capable as you say, I really don’t think I would have survived the pressure.”

Tiki hummed her agreement, even though that wasn’t why she was glad Marinette had switched. She and Plagg had been keeping a closer eye on Marinette since she had mentioned a week ago that her arm was burning where the birthmark was. Tiki had immediately studied Marinette's power and came to realize that Hawkmoth, was trying to siphon power off her from wherever he was, quite possibly to prevent her from summoning a familiar. Marinette's magic had matured though, and it had built up a tolerance to being siphoned off. Basically, it was fighting the pull, and now that her kitten was older he was using his magic to help her fight as well. Due to that, Marinette’s magic had been far more sporadic than usual which, was another reason that she was so nervous about the summoning. Tiki and Plagg had taken turns watching over her and even though Marinette had seen Plagg once she hadn’t suspected anything being amiss. No one odd had approached her thankfully and with her switching her time with another Tiki was confident that Marinette's summoning would go off without a hitch. Hawkmoth wouldn’t know about the switched times if he were planning some sort of sabotage and, even if he wanted to try, he wouldn’t know when her new time was. Completely clueless to Tiki’s thoughts, Marinette finished her homework and went to bed early, knowing her phone would be ringing off the hook soon enough.


	2. Chapter 2

True to form, as soon as the sun rose Marinette's phone was ringing. With a grumble, Marinette answered the phone and soon found herself hauling several items to school for Alya. She was also carrying a box filled with fabric for herself to use when she summoned the next day. 

“So are you excited?!” Alya squealed, shifting a bag so she could see Marinette's face. 

“More nervous than excited, but at least I don’t have long to stew about it,” Marinette answered, knowing that it was better to tell Alya the truth right from the start. Otherwise she had a habit of pushing till she had a satisfactory answer. 

Alya grinned at her friend. “You know you’re gonna do great and come tomorrow there will be four of us to create mischief!” 

Marinette couldn’t help but chuckle, refusing to put a damper on her friends enthusiasm. They arrived at school quickly and stored their materials in the appropriate places. Then they went to class which was abuzz with several excited students. Sabrina, like Alya, was practically vibrating with nervous energy along with two other students. There were plenty of others who were just as excited to see the first summonings, usually these were filled with a sense of almost stale power and sometimes it led to an odd show of magic. The teachers when asked simply said it was because the magic was left over from the last year’s summoning and the first people to summon were essentially cleaning the old magic out.

Marinette had a different theory, however. They were summoning on the same lines that their ancestors had first summoned on and that magic was imbued deep within the earth at the summoning spot. The first summonings were calling those magics back awake and the odd shows were the ancient magic literally sparking back to life. Two years ago she had shifted her vision so she could see the magic there and had been shocked out of her sight. The whole area glowed, especially when someone of magical talent was there. What was even stranger was the fact that she could see shapes of people, almost like spirits, guiding the casters as they began the summoning. One shape had come to her that year to tap on her nose, and Marinette had dropped her vision realizing it was a kind of rebuke from the magical world. Later she had asked her father who had the same vision abilities as her and he had laughed telling her that she had to use her abilities constantly if she wanted the magical spirits to accept her. Apparently when she used her vision- abilities which were passed down from a familiar ancestor- it allowed other things to see her on the magical side. Her father also shared with her that the longer she used her abilities the more familiar the magical world would be with her. Since she hadn’t used her vision abilities often up to that point, she practically glowed to others who had the same abilities which made her an oddity. Those that could see like her and her father, usually saw since birth and unlike Marinette they couldn’t turn it off. Her father Tom couldn’t figure out how she managed it either, but then usually those with human magic didn’t have familiar abilities either. 

Marinette's magical vision had kicked in around 8 years old and had created quite the scare for her. Since then she rarely used it although, once she had talked to her father about it, Marinette decided that she had been misusing it by not using it at all. For the last two years she had been training her magical vision almost constantly, and she had found many, many uses for it. One such use was being able to see magical boobie traps set up for pranks or more malicious uses. Alya didn’t know about her vision, but trusted her completely when Marinette said there were magical boobie traps set. Marinette could always tell who set them too, although she could never prove it since magical vision like hers was fairly rare. Usually they were set by Chloe or Sabrina, since each person’s magic held a different look to it, and Alya usually either disabled the traps or moved the trap so it would spring on its owner. Marinette had noticed far less traps set for them in the past years, since Chloe got tired of getting hit by her own pranks. 

Last year when she had watched the summonings she had done so with her magical vision active. The spirits there had been intrigued by her presence, but they hadn’t done anything that time. The summonings had been far cooler to watch with her magical vision activated, and this year Marinette hoped to be able to share it with Alya. She hadn’t told Alya about the vision simply because it had never come up, but her father had told her since she was using her power more often it would be a fun exercise to try and share the vision with others. He hadn’t told her how to do that, leaving her to figure it out on her own, and Marinette was really ready to give it a shot. Class went by slowly and at lunch Marinette brought the vision subject up. 

“Hey, Alya?” Marinette asked as they sat in her room eating some cookies.

Alya glanced up, she was starting to get nervous since her summoning was coming up very soon and she was trying hard not to lose her cool. “What’s up, Marinette?”   
Marinette twisted her fingers, a sight that meant she was nervous or sheepish about something. 

“I, uh, want to try something, and I’m not sure it will work, but if it does I think you will really like it,” Marinette answered 

Alya eyed her curiously, wondering what in the world Marinette could have in store for her. At this point, though, any distraction was a welcome one, so she nodded her acceptance. “Ok, do we need to be touching or anything?” 

It was Marinette's turn to nod, and she scooted next to Alya who was happy to lean against her. “Ok, I’m going to start. You will be able to tell if it works,” Marinette sighed, forcing herself to relax against Alya. 

Slowly, she shifted her energy outwards, causing a pink glow to emanate around her within her magical vision. Alya’s energy responded in kind without her awareness, making her glow an earthy orange color. Little by little Marinette blended their outlying energies together and Marinette shifted her sight to Alya, feeling the bond they had pulse at the new layer she was wrapping around them. It had taken two months of trial and error with Tiki’s help to figure out that using a bond was the easiest way to go about it. She and Tiki had a strong old bond, but the bond between Alya and Marinette was far stronger. It was over two years ago that she had figured out she had such a bond with Alya, and it had made her realize that they used the bond far more than she could have ever expected. Mostly, it was an energy balance between the two of them, but their bond also carried the shadow of emotions which was how either girl could tell when the other was upset. Several seconds passed and then Alya gasped, jerking upright. 

“Oh, my gosh. Girl, what did you do?” Alya gasped, twisting around since she could suddenly see a rainbow of magic surrounding them. 

Marinette wiggled excitedly beside her. “You can see it?!” She whisper screamed, and Alya nodded as she looked at her friend, gaping rather comically as she saw her glow. 

“You’re glowing. I’m glowing. And what is this?” she asked, reaching for the multicolored thread that seemed to tie them together from their energies. 

Her hands passed right through it and Marinette giggled. “It’s our bond, and this is a power I inherited from my familiar grandparents. I didn’t use it because it scared me badly when it first activated as a kid. I have been using it, though, for the past two years and it’s finally strong enough for me to share it with people I’m close to.” 

“This is amazing,” Alya whispered. “How long can you maintain it?” 

Marinette shrugged. “I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like it will take much of an effort to maintain it, but I wanted to show you what a summoning looks like since you seem nervous.” 

Alya chuckled eyeing the multicolored thread between them before reaching down to point at it. “This is our bond isn’t it? It’s how we can always tell how the other is feeling, and how we can always find each other. I mean, they always tell us that we form bonds with people and that some can see them, but… wow, I can see ours!”

Marinette nodded, happy that Alya was happy. “It’s been there for a really long time. We share our energy through it too a lot of times.” 

Alya gripped Marinette's hand. “Girl, this is amazing. Thanks for showing me this, and I’m happy that I have a bond with you.” 

Bonds in the magical world were special, and there were more types than stars in the sky. Bonds could be created and broken depending on their type and some bonds could be used like a physical conduit if necessary. Both Alya and Marinette knew that their bond was something special, one that was closer to a sister type bond than simple friends. Only a certain kind of potion could allow people to see bonds normally, and it was rare for people to use it since the ingredients were fairly expensive. It also didn’t have much of a use in the everyday world, although police would sometimes use it to help find missing people. Alya’s phone went off suddenly and the rainbow of magic surrounding them shattered.

“Oops,” Marinette muttered, her brows furrowing in annoyance, and Alya laughed. 

“It’s cool, girl. Let’s head back to school so we get a good spot to watch Sabrina’s summoning. I’m curious to see what she summons. Plus, you can show me what it looks like magically. Hey! Is this how you can always see boobie traps and stuff?”

Marinette nodded, both girls climbing to their feet. “Yeah, I’ll show you what one looks like later.”

They got to the summoning circle with plenty of time to spare and they found an excellent spot down near the front. After they sat, Marinette reached out a hand and Alya took it, wondering what she was about to see. Several moments past but far quicker this time she could suddenly see things she never had before. It was like extra lenses had been put on her eyes, allowing her to see shimmers, flickers, and odd washes of color that winked in and out of existence. Semi-transparent things moved here and there as well, and Alya flinched as one came past them, eyeing her with what seemed like curiosity. 

“Um, what are the…” Alya started, but found she didn’t have the proper name for them. 

“I call them ghosts or sprites depending on what they do. Some of them are harmless, some of them make trouble, and others are kind of like guardians. I don’t think they know what to think about us since not many people can use vision like me and papa can. Actually, not a ton of people have vision like ours anyways, so they aren’t used to us at all.”

“I think we should call them Shimmers,” Alya said, stretching out a hand as a small shimmer hovered near them. It came closer, landing on Alya’s hand for a brief moment, before taking off again. Alya frowned after it. “I didn’t feel it at all,” she murmured, rubbing a finger over the spot where it had touched. 

“You won’t, mostly. Very few Spr- er-Shimmers can actually touch on the physical realm. Most of them don’t touch people at all, though a few like to feed of the emotions or energy we humans give off. Certain familiars hate the shimmers for that and chase them. That startled a laugh out of Alya as they witnessed a small squirrel familiar stand on its master’s head and chatter loudly. The two shimmers that had been slinking close to its human darted away as the man reached up to pull his familiar down. They could hear the man mutter something about behaving since he couldn’t see the Shimmers and know what his familiar had been doing. 

“Hey, isn’t that Sabrina’s dad?” Marinette asked and Alya snorted.

“Huh, you’re right. I figured he would have something more intimidating than a squirrel as a familiar.”

Sabrina appeared a few minutes later, rushing to her dad and giving him a hug. To both of their surprise, Chloe followed behind, sitting next to Sabrina when she finally let her father go. 

“So, who’s up first?” Marinette asked, distracting Alya from trying to get a closer look at Chloe who had several shimmers sitting around her. They shifted to avoid contact from Sabrina when she leaned in close, and Alya wondered what that meant. 

“Um, I don’t know,” Alya answered, finally turning her attention back to Chloe. “Sabrina’s second and I’m third. I think whoever was supposed to be first switched.” 

The stands around them gained a few more people, although most of them were students, and finally a hush began to fall around the room as an odd presence slowly built in the room. Beside Marinette, Alya stiffened as before them the floor started gaining a very odd, milky white glow. 

“The magics are waking up,” Marinette whispered, as multicolored shapes peeled themselves from the floor. There were seven of them, each taking a color from the rainbow with the exception of the one that was solid black. 

The red one, like the last two times when watched, swirled to a location near Marinette. Like the last two times, Marinette held out a hand and the red brushed past her before swirling away. This time the orange one also swept close, making Alya giggle as it brushed past. 

“What are they? Did any of the other colors do that?” Alya asked, as the two figures swirled back into the circle to join the others. Marinette hadn’t seen if the other shapes had gone to anyone, since she had been focused on the red and orange ones. 

“I don’t know what they are. The first time I tried this, the red one came and tapped me on the nose and last year it simply brushed past. I never saw the orange one come near before. I think they represent the magic of the founders though,” Marinette answered finally, as the circle turned into a rainbow of color.

“Mylene!” an official voice called, just as the circles color bled to a white shade then faded back to its normal shading. 

Silence echoed through the room until a very small, very shy voice practically whispered, “Here…” 

A girl emerged from one of the doorways to the floor below and edged slowly to where the summoning lines lay. She hesitated on the edge, her body shivering, and   
Alya leaned further into Marinette whispering. “Jeez, she’s more nervous than you Marinette. I don’t recognize her though, is she from another class?”

Marinette shrugged. “I guess, but look at her aura. She has some strong magic and it’s leaking everywhere.” 

Alya looked back at the girl and realized Marinette was correct. Mylene’s aura was a grey color and it was putting off streamers and sparks as the girl teetered nervously at the edge of the circle. Seeing those sparks Alya suddenly recognized her.

“Marinette, she isn’t in our class, although I recognize her now. She is the one that’s always muttering that stinky wolf song and tends to zap people when they get too close,” Alya murmured. 

About to reply, Marinette was cut off when the official snapped, “Sometime today please!”

Mylene yelped stumbling forwards and her aura flared briefly, before swirling back around her, the lines of the summoning circle glowing a clear greyish color.   
Marinette winced at the sight and hissed, “Her aura flared when the official surprised her. Most people get zapped when they scare her, right?”

Alya nodded, watching as Mylene paled when she realized she was in the circle. The girl’s knees seemed to give out and she sat down rather hard, a slight breeze coming from nowhere and stirring up the arena’s floor. A second, stiffer breeze seemed to blow only around Mylene and sand began to sift into existence, all of it tinged with the odd grey of Mylene’s aura. Within a few moments the large circle was coated with sand, intricately pooled in the shape of a summoning circle. Mylene was shaking now, but everyone knew that once you were in the circle there was no turning back. So, closing her eyes, the girl reached forwards, pressing her hand to the line and whispered her activation phrase. Marinette and Alya gasped as the floor bunched in the center, bright sparks of color seeming to firework off the sand. Within moments the sparking sand pooled inwards, solidifying into pebbles, then into larger rocks, until what looked like a large stone golem stood in the middle of the circle. Between one breath and the next the light from the magic blew out, like a candle, and the room fell silent. 

“Um… she did use the right spell… right, Marinette?” Alya murmured and Marinette nodded.

“It looks like one of those living golems, it’s definitely a familiar and not just a construction.” 

As she finished her sentence suddenly the golem like construct bellowed, slamming its fists into the ground. The ground sent up a shower of white sparks, meaning the field’s protections had kicked in. 

“Uh, oh…” Alya whispered, as Mylene crawled forward, the lines in the circle glowing bright, and the golem turned its featureless face towards her. Bellowing again, it slammed its way towards her, sending off sparks with every step until it raised its arms up over Mylene’s crouched, shaking from. 

Alya gripped Marinette's hand hard. “It’s going to kill her!” she whimpered, trying to stand, and Marinette gripped Alya’s hand back, keeping her in her seat. Multiple people all over were standing but no one moved, knowing there was nothing they could do to interfere. The same field protection spells that kept all rogue familiar attacks in, also kept all magic users’ attacks out. 

There was nothing they could do but watch as the fists descended and suddenly Mylene launched herself at the golem, her arms snapping around the thing’s middle as far as they could reach. A loud crunch echoed through the room at the golem’s miss, but it quickly righted itself and its fist came down again, smacking into Mylene, tossing her aside. The girl hit the ground and rolled, coming to a stop, but to everyone’s surprise the Golem froze. Mylene sat up, wincing, and in her hand she held a blade like feather that was black with red patterns on it. With a frown, Mylene spoke a word and the feather turned to dust. Silence filled the room until the golem shifted with a crunch, its own body starting to crumble until only a pile of dust and pebbles seemed to remain. Shakily, Mylene stood and walked over to the pile, which shivered as she drew near. 

“Is she talking to the dirt pile?” Alya wondered. 

“No, the golem is still in there, can’t you see it?” Marinette asked, then realized she had dropped her magical vision with Alya when she forced her to stay in her seat.   
Quickly rectifying that as Alya settled, they watched Mylene crouch down next to the pile before gently brushing dirt aside. After several moments she pulled back a very small, very colorful, bejeweled looking Golem held safe in her hands. It flinched away from Mylene as she lifted it up, but as she spoke softly to it the golem relaxed and after a long moment nodded. Bringing the Golem up, Mylene pressed a kiss to the top of its head and the circle lit up, a breeze instantly coming back, as it swirled sand around the two of them. Able to see through the sand screen thanks to Marinette's magical vision they witnessed the tiny golem being lifted into the air, the magical sand slowly wrapping itself around it, forming a new outer shell. Finally there was no more sand and the Golem dropped down to the ground with a loud grumble of stone on stone, its size fully restored. The lines winked out around them, the bond having been formed, and the protections on the circle returning to their dormant state while a tall, thin man ran out from one of the openings, heading directly for the girl. The golem moved to intercept but Mylene patted its arm and, after giving a small shrug, the golem shrunk down on itself until it was the same size as its once bejeweled self. Mylene picked up the golem as the man reached her and Alya traced a sign in the air allowing Marinette and her to hear what they said next. 

“Papa, look isn’t Ivan adorable!” Mylene asked, holding the golem up for her father to inspect. 

A small worried smile flickered on the man’s face. “My sweet, he is right now but he tried to kill you a minute ago.” 

Mylene shook her head, cuddling the newly christened Ivan to her chest. “No, papa, I summoned him as he was being attacked by some nasty cupids. They were hurting him and that feather I destroyed was making him crazy. He didn’t know who I was or where he was until I managed to pull it out and destroy it. He is very grateful to me for helping him and he says he will protect me forever for saving him.” 

“Ah… um, ok then, as long as he helps you dear,” Her papa answered, guiding her away from the circle.

Well, that was exciting,” Marinette managed, as some cleaners came out to sweep the area clear of any remaining sand and a purifier banished the last traces of Mylene’s magic. 

Alya nodded, feeling rather distracted, as the purifier radiated what looked like colorless waves or maybe even heat. The magic didn’t really have a color, although she could tell it was there because it distorted the air around them.

“Do you think that Mylene will be ok? I mean, that golem of hers looked pretty wicked. By the way, this seeing magic thing is really useful,” Alya said. 

“I think she will be fine. After all, the two of them have a bond now. Do you want to stay for Sabrina’s summoning?” Marinette asked, noticing how her friend was starting to twitch in her seat. 

Alya ducked her head. “I kinda have to stay, Marinette. I’m up next.”

Marinette nodded and stood pulling Alya to her feet. “Well, we have to stay nearby and you do have to check in, so let’s go do that while Sabrina is summoning.”  
Alya gave a weak nod, following Marinette as she moved down the stands and into its underside. There were hardly any people leaving the stands, although a few were still trickling in. Together they moved towards the entrance to the field, wandering through the labyrinthine paths that extended under the stands. 

“I hate that this place is needlessly complicated,” Alya groused, as Sabrina’s name was called. 

“They built it like this to keep any excess magic from escaping, Alya. You know that,” Marinette replied. 

A few moments later a whisper of magic came to life around them and both girls froze in surprise. “That does not feel like Sabrina’s magic,” Marinette murmured. 

Alya shivered as the magic passed them by and realized Marinette had dropped her magical sight on her again. “Did you see what that magic looked like?” 

Shaking her head, Marinette moved forward again. “No, I dropped it before we came down here. I didn’t think I would need it. Maybe what they say about all the trapped magic down here is true though.” 

Both girls were silent as they arrived at the check in area, and Marinette was able to catch glimpses of an odd battle being waged between Sabrina and some mishmash looking animal. 

“Another attacking familiar?” Marinette asked and the official sighed. 

“I think this one is getting a feel for her magic rather than attacking to injure. It keeps shifting so it is definitely a changeling of some species. Maybe even a pure type.” 

“Oh, that will make an interesting companion for Sabrina then, since her magic is so varied anyways,” Marinette murmured, making both the official and Alya glance at her oddly. 

Seeing the odd looks Marinette gave a sheepish grin, sticking her tongue out at Alya. Sabrina wasn’t a very strong caster in terms of power. Instead, she simply excelled in using all types of magic equally. In Marinette's mind she was a kind of a jack of all trades, never majoring in a specific area, which allowed her to work with all kinds of people and spells. As Alya checked herself in, Marinette turned her attention back to the battle going on in the circle. The familiar had switched to a water like form and Sabrina switched seamlessly to water magic reaching out to the creature with gentleness rather than a true attack. As the water made contact the familiar gave a trill, changing into a solid form about the size of a small dog. Its head was almost dragon-like, while its body was a mishmash of animal forms and patterns. Marinette identified stripes, fur, claws, and fairly large butterfly-like wings on the thing’s back, before Sabrina moved towards it. Kneeling down before the odd creature, Sabrina held out her hand and the changeling snapped at her, taking whatever she offered before swallowing it down. The changeling glowed for a few brief seconds, shrinking down as the circle matched its coloration, then the matching glows winked out leaving a silver squirrel with butterfly wings on the ground before Sabrina. It chittered, leaping into Sabrina’s hands, and Marinette could hear her giggling as it raced up her arm. Turning away, Marinette moved back over to Alya who had taken a seat next to the wall. 

“Are you ready, Alya? Sabrina just finished,” Marinette murmured, as she sat next to her friend. 

Alya nodded, determination flaring in her eyes. “I am. I’m just… really nervous. What if I summon a familiar that hates me? What if I have to force it to work with me or something? I really don’t want that.” 

“Well, then just ask it once it shows up. Most familiars will let a person know immediately if they want to stay or not. You can summon three times if the first is totally incompatible,” Marinette answered, patting Alya on the back as Sabrina moved past cuddling her new familiar. It chittered happily at her, and Marinette smiled as Alya slumped against her. “Besides, Alya, even if a familiar tries to attack you it won’t get very far with your magic. You’re laying your circle in wood, aren’t you?”  
Returning to an upright position Alya nodded pulling out a handful of seeds from her pocket. “Yeah, I decided to go with plants since my word magic would take forever to set and I didn’t feel like bringing an entire bundle of paper out there with me.”   
Marinette nodded, then they both stiffened as Alya’s name was called. Getting to their feet, Marinette walked to the doorway with her, where she stopped since the monitor there was giving her the stink eye. 

“I’ll be right here, Alya. You got this!” Marinette said with a grin as she squeezed Alya’s hand. 

With a firm nod, Alya strode forward to the blank etched circles, and Marinette held her breath as she watched her step over the lines, making them glow a rusty orange color. With a few whispered words Alya tossed something from her hand and Marinette knew they were the seeds she’d shown Marinette a minutes ago. For a few short breaths nothing happened and then an explosion of growth swamped the circle, weaving together to form the intricate lines of the summoning circle. There were a few gasps from the stands and Marinette grinned, since she knew how impressive it looked to anyone seeing it for the first time. Alya was good at several types of magic, including illusions and plant magic, which made her an interesting foe whenever they practiced battle magic together. Right now though, Alya was concentrating fiercely making sure every tendril went to the correct destination. It was done in a few short minutes and the circle was complete. With a few final creaks of wood everything settled and Alya raised her hand, whispering a word that made the whole circle light up with blue colored flames. Shifting closer to the edge of the door, Marinette held her breath as a pillar of flame danced into existence in the center of the circle. With her magical vision active Marinette could see a humanoid figure take shape in the center. The flames burned brighter as Alya moved forward into the main ring one hand held out and the figure seemed to shrink in on itself, the flames dying down until all that was left was an animal that looked like your average dog. If the dog was a creature made of flames and light. Alya froze, eyeing the dog oddly, then grinned saying, “Come here, boy!”

The dog barked, rushing forward, until it was sitting just before Alya. Wiggling in excitement the flame dog reared back on his hind legs, tail wagging like mad. Alya caught his waving paws with a laugh, not fearing getting burned at all and whispered something in the dog’s ears. For brief second the dog’s tail stilled as she spoke, then burst into movement once more as it nodded. The circle around them glowed shrinking down around and under them until what looked like a collar was all that was left. Dropping the dog’s paws, Alya picked the collar up to fit it around the dog’s neck. The moment the collar snapped into place the dog’s flames snuffed out, its coat and shape taking on the coloration and size of a German Shepard. 

“So, she summoned an odd flame dog,” The official sighed, looking to their books once more. “Kids these days summon the strangest things.” 

Marinette glanced at them while hiding her smile. She was fairly certain Alya’s new familiar was more than a simple flame dog, but she wasn’t going to be the one to spill the beans so to speak. Instead, Marinette moved out onto the floor, catching Alya’s eye since she had just turned to walk back to the door. 

“Marinette, look! Isn’t Nino the coolest!” Alya squealed, as she got close enough to talk. 

Marinette nodded eagerly, putting her hand down for Nino to sniff politely at. “Can you talk Nino or are you just an odd fire puppy?” 

Nino grinned, a very sly dog grin and gave a short bark, his tail wagging. 

“Please, clear the floor!” a voice called, and they all flinched, with Nino letting a short growl out. 

Taking Alya’s hand, Marinette pulled her towards the door. “Come on! I’m sure your mom is waiting for you now and we need to get your paperwork.”

They crossed the threshold, Nino close behind, and they collected the packet of papers the official had ready for them. Papers in hand, Alya pulled Marinette from the room to race through the corridors until they stood outside. Alya’s mom and siblings stood waiting for her and Marinette gave her a small push.

“Go introduce Nino, we will celebrate together tomorrow, ok?” Marinette said, making Alya grin and Nino bark again.

“That sounds awesome because you know how my mom likes to celebrate with small family dinners and stuff,” Alya grumbled.

Marinette grinned at her, but gave her another slight push. “Go on, and call me later.” 

“Ok, talk to you later, girl.” Alya answered and headed over to where her family stood. 

Marinette watched as Alya introduced Nino to everyone and then they headed off with Nino dancing around them all. With a small smile Marinette headed home, hoping beyond hope that when she summoned she got something as nice as a puppy, even if it was a flame puppy. Once Marinette got home her parents asked her how the summonings had gone. Marinette had given them a blow by blow before heading up to her room for the night. To her surprise Tiki was nowhere in sight and even when Marinette called out to her she didn’t appear. With a mental shrug, Marinette went about her normal evening routine. After doing her homework and getting the last of her items ready Marinette went to sleep, knowing that she would need all of her strength for the next day.


	3. Chapter 3

The moment her alarm finally buzzed her awake Marinette was a bundle of nerves. Alya and Nino met her at the front of the bakery and Alya launched into a discussion on what kind of party they needed to throw once Marinette summoned her familiar. Marinette didn’t add much to the discussion since she was so nervous and school seemed to pass by far too quick for her taste. In what seemed like only moments she was hugging her parents who had come to watch her summon and then her name was called. 

Releasing Alya’s hand from the death grip she had on it, Marinette approached the empty circles her heart in her throat. There were more people in the stands than she had expected, probably because Chloe was supposed to be summoning. In either case, Marinette had to force herself to move forward, silently reviewing exactly what needed to be done here. The lines of a finished summoning circle were intricate and it was a pattern that they had to memorize as a precursor to the summoning itself. The only thing on the ground here was the shape of two circles and the four triangles for each compass point. The large circle was thirteen feet across and the smaller circle was situated at the north compass point within the larger circle. These simple shapes were etched into the very stone themselves and they were only there because even with magic it was hard to create a perfect circle. Around the edges of the room a wide range of materials sat in boxes ready to be used if desired. Each summoner was allowed to pick and choose their own materials since many people had specialties picked even at their age. So, depending on how they wanted to work their design and their magic, each summoning was truly unique. Marinette had brought some of her own fabrics and thread with her, knowing that using her own supplies would go far to sooth her nerves. Even still, Marinette felt like she was about to fall apart, so she swiftly stepped into the smaller circle before she could talk herself out of it. The lines glowed around her briefly, locking her into this chance. Now she had to draw her circle and attempt a summoning or else she wouldn’t be able to leave the circles until she tried and failed. 

“You got this, Marinette!” Alya shouted from the sidelines and her voice seemed to shatter the fear that had iced her heart. 

People shushed her instantly and Marinette turned to face her, grinning as Alya gave her a huge thumb up. Her familiar Nino stood beside her in his shepherd’s dog form, and she could see his tail wagging. He gave a short happy bark echoing his master’s enthusiasm, and Marinette snorted as some of the officials glared daggers at Alya. Alya soundly ignored them, even rubbing Nino’s head murmuring, “Good boy!”

Turning back to the circle, feeling slightly better, Marinette took a deep breath then lowered herself into a sitting position. Most people stood to do a summoning, but Marinette liked to sit and be close to where the magic was happening. Thankfully, no one commented on her quirk except Chloe, who was also shushed and Marinette totally ignored her. Reaching out, Marinette brushed her fingers across the etched lines that surrounded her. It was an odd trait of hers, but Marinette could feel the magic imbued in these lines. It was old magic she was sensing and Tiki had told her time and again that she was a rare human that had the ability to sense old magics. The magic in the lines before her told her exactly what shape the circle had to be for her to do a summoning and she felt relief trickle through her. Knowing she wouldn’t mess up the placement of the upper circles lines was a small comfort at least. The other pattern she was going to use would underlay the normal pattern and give her power a boost. Taking one last deep breath she centered her mind while pulling a spool of thread from her pocket. She had carried this spool with her everywhere for nearly two weeks and her magic, sweat, and even a bit of blood saturated the tightly woven thread. The thread had absorbed her essence, and in using this thread in her spell’s circle, she would be able to practically guarantee the spell would work, even if her magic was particularly low that day. Thread shifted in her hands from the spool and she could hear a surprised intake of breath as she started to lay out her circle. Marinette refused to open her eyes and see what was taking place around her to make people gasp. It was a good thing she didn’t because if she had she would have realized that her aura had shimmered into the visible spectrum which was extraordinarily rare for witches of her age. Fabric and thread shifted around the circle, laying down as the pattern in Marinette's mind called them to, and the spool of thread in Marinette's hands began to unwind. It jerked fairly fast at first, her magic responding to her eagerness to just get this over with and the thread sliced into her pointer finger enough to give her a slight papercut. 

“Easy…” Marinette whispered to herself, bringing her focus back to where it should have been in the first place. 

Finally, after several minutes, the circle was complete and Marinette opened her eyes to see the result. The design was in four colors, blue, red, black, and green. She couldn’t say why she had chosen those colors, but they were the ones that had called to her when collecting supplies for this spell. The fabrics were laid with absolute precision and Marinette felt a glow of pleasure as she inspected her work. If a person tried to remove the overlay on the ground right now they would find that all the threads had woven together into a practical carpet. Her secondary hidden design was in place as well, glowing a golden color only within her mind’s eye. Feeling in her bones that the time to finish the spell was upon her, Marinette took one last deep breath before reaching out to tie the last thread into place by hand. Placing her hand on that final knot, Marinette reached within herself and pulled a thread of her power out to press it into the spell. 

A smile twitched her lips and she whispered, “Spots On.” 

It was her activation phrase, one that she made sure no one ever overheard. Most people had several activation phrases, ranging for ones they used for common spells to ones they used for advanced spells. Spots on was an old phrase for her, one that was originally meant as a joke. Now, though, it was her go to phrase when she was about to do some powerful magic that by all rights should be impossible for her to do alone. 

The hum of magic filled the air and the circle before her lit up, shining in the colors she had chosen. It was beautiful and all at once a tear shimmered before her, widening in the air, until a circle formed in the center of the ring. It was obvious no one but her could see the circle hanging before her and Marinette was fascinated because through it she could see the Familiars’ world. The world was well known to her since everyone had seen it through special lenses in class dozens of times. This one spot though seemed more intimate to her, even though Marinette couldn’t place why. A blue-green grass land stretched before her under an aqua sky streaked with fluffy purple clouds, and in the background she could see a tree line. The trees were all the wrong colors as was the grass and clouds, but to her it didn’t matter. Marinette could practically feel the grass under her, smell the crisp alien air, and all she wanted to do for a moment was throw herself through the portal. Thankfully, she couldn’t, since her body was locked in place till the spell released her. One thing that struck her as odd was that there was not a creature in sight and the spell, seeming to sense her confusion, slowly moved her point of view. Suddenly, a black cat scrambled into sight, nearly tripping over its paws as it slid to a halt in the grass. A jolt of familiarity went through her as bright green eyes met her blue ones, and Marinette could swear the cat actually smiled before leaping through the portal. The lights from the circle winked out and Marinette was grateful she was sitting down. Her bones seemed to be vibrating and her arm burned where the birthmark sat. She ignored both sensations, blinking the spots out of her eyes to see a handsome black cat sitting in the circle looking around with interest. 

“A black cat?! Oh, my stars, how fitting for the useless witch,” Chloe jeered. 

Voices shushed her, but Marinette winced. Black cats were the epitome of bad luck and cats in general were looked down upon as familiars. Every species of familiar were welcomed with different levels of enthusiasm since no class of familiar could be banned from summoning, and although cats were rare they were down near the very bottom of the list. They had fallen out of fashion over 100 years ago especially when it was shown that most cat familiars rarely listened to their owners. Many owners of familiar cats even had mysterious accidents happen to them over time and soon no one wanted a cat familiar. It also didn’t help that they were contrary creatures and even the weakest ones were said to be able to hold enough magic to travel as they wished between worlds. Usually if a witch or wizard summoned one they almost always sent it back and truth be told it happened very rarely for a cat to come through anyways. As if sensing the mood, this cat hadn’t moved an inch, clearly waiting to see Marinette's decision. If she wanted, Marinette could send the cat back and try again, not that she was even sure she had the power to do so. It was the caster’s right to choose their own familiar after all, though these days they limited the attempts to three per person. It was said that the first familiar to come through was your best fit however. 

Silence reigned in the chamber and Marinette felt frozen to the spot as the cat’s eyes met hers once more. For a moment she couldn’t breathe as an odd, not quite memory drifted through her mind. She was a child sitting in a blue-green field, across from a black kitten, who was eyeing her much the same way this black tom was now. As a child she had reached out and the black kitten had come. Now though, it was her turn to take that step forward. It was a feeling from her very core that pulled her towards the black cat and she knew in that instant there was no way she could send him back to the familiar world. He was hers and she was his. That fact was bright in her mind as Marinette moved without even realizing it. With her gaze fixed upon the cat she didn’t even feel herself get to her feet or see the lines glow a stunning silver color as she stepped into the main ring. Unfortunately, her task wasn’t finished yet. Now the true bond had to be made. Some familiars didn’t appreciate getting pulled from their world and sometimes they would force their new witch or wizard to prove their worth. These could come as small battles, challenges of wit, or any other form of disagreement. Sometimes the caster in question would fail and at best the familiar would depart back to their home allowing the caster to try again. At worst the familiar would turn on the caster and in some cases kill them. Since people on the outside couldn’t interfere with a familiar’s choice it was always horribly heartbreaking when it happened. Thankfully, it was very rare, and Marinette knew she had nothing to fear as she dropped to her knees before the handsome black creature. 

“Hi,” Marinette breathed, and the cat cocked his head to the side as if unsure about her, but the intelligence in his eyes betrayed the odd movement.  
“I know you,” Marinette whispered, her heart screaming at her to scoop the cat up and hug him to her. Mentally of course she couldn’t think of where or how but her instincts told her she knew this cat and that he was meant to be with her. The cat’s lip lifted slightly, in what the people outside the circle probably thought was a snarl or a grimace but Marinette knew it was a smile.

Slowly, Marinette lifted her one hand towards him, the cut on her one finger holding the tiniest bead of blood. The cat sniffed at her hand and his tongue flicked out, licking the blood off and sending a slight jolt of power through her, instantly healing the cut. The world froze and the cat’s name seemed to roar through her, smashing at the weakened barrier that kept her lost memories locked down tight. The barrier didn’t break, but it did crack, although Marinette had no knowledge of this yet. 

“Adrien,” Marinette whispered, and the cat swayed on his paws tail waving in excitement. 

“Marinette,” The cat answered in a purr that Marinette knew was only in her mind.

Heart pounding, Marinette spoke the words needed to properly bind him to her. “I will protect you, share everything I have with you. Will you stay at my side? Protect me from harm, share the joys and sorrows of this world with me?”

Adrien’s eyes glowed. “Always, you are my partner, my friend.” 

The circle around them glowed gold and Marinette felt tears spring to her eyes. Slowly the circle peeled itself from the floor rising into the air, shrinking as it did so. Finally after reaching the size of a quarter it fell towards them until it hovered between them. Marinette reached into her pocket, pulling out a length of black ribbon, and lifting it with her mind, threaded the now quarter sized circle onto the thread. Adrien stood proudly on all four paws, head tilted up as Marinette mentally fixed the ribbon in place around his neck. Light flashed from the ribbon and the circle turned into a gold bell. The hum of magic vanished and with a sudden, joyous ‘meert’ sound, Adrien threw himself at Marinette who caught him with open arms. 

Instantly, the room exploded into noise as she stood and it took about ten seconds for Alya to scramble from under the stands to make it to her side.  
“Congratulations!!!!” Alya shrieked, slamming into her from behind and squishing the two of them in a hug. “You did it, girl. I’m so freakin’ proud of you!” 

Nino barked, happy his human was happy, while also trying to sniff Adrien out. Wiggling out of Marinette's arms, he landed on the floor, turning to face the dog. Nino froze and Alya whispered, “uh oh,” having realized the day before that Nino seemed to enjoy chasing smaller animals.  
Before Marinette could turn and pick Adrien up, however, he suddenly grew, going from a small tabby to panther size in a second. Both humans looked on in shock as Nino’s tail busted into an excited wave, approaching the now panther sized Adrien with happy yips. Adrien patted the excited Nino with a massive paw, then shrank back down so he could leap onto the dog’s back. The two animals turned to their humans looking quite pleased with themselves and Marinette couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Well, that solves that question!” she said, and Alya laughed with her as Marinette’s parents joined them in the circle.

“Well done, sweetheart!” Sabine cried, her hummingbird familiar darting down to inspect Adrien. Seeming to like what it saw the bird settled on his head and everyone laughed at the odd sight of a hummingbird, sitting on a cat, sitting on a dog. 

“We knew you could do it, kiddo!” Tom said, and wrapped her into a hug.

“This calls for a celebration for sure!” Alya cried, and still laughing and talking excitedly the group made its way out of the building. 

They had a small, but fun party when they got to the bakery, since Marinette had succeeded in summoning a familiar. Several of her friends from school showed up, happy to chat and eye the handsome black cat, although they were all a touch nervous of him. Everyone knew the stories of the worst familiars to get and black cats were right up there with mud slimes. Adrien was on his best behavior even showing off how he could grow at one point. Nino had wanted to play with Adrien when he did that but the cat stuck to Marinette's side like a burr unless her mom or father snatched him up to pet or chatter at him. No one was sure just how intelligent the cat was quite yet, although Marinette had a feeling he was as smart as her, if not smarter. They also didn’t know his type, whether he was just a smart cat, a changeling species, or something else entirely. They would know by the end of the week when everyone who summoned a familiar went through the classification spell, although Marinette had a feeling that she already knew what Adrien was. The name of his species had come to her the moment his consciousness had brushed hers, although she had only heard of them once before in her familiar class. She was fairly certain he was something called a Grimalkin which with her level of magic should have been impossible to summon. In truth, she hadn’t had a chance to talk to Adrien, much less look up information on her hunch, but deep within her mind Marinette knew that they were fated for each other, regardless of impossibility. From the moment he had spoken to her in that ring she could feel the brush of his consciousness against hers, especially when the cat lost sight of her. Marinette returned the touch able to feel the bond that connected the two of them, a bond that was already far stronger than it should have been. The bond between them felt old like a well-worn pathway that was as easy to sense as breathing. In truth, she was a little shocked she hadn’t been able to feel it before. It felt as if a blinder had been placed over her eyes and now it had been suddenly ripped off. As if sensing her contemplation Adrien appeared at her side, brushing his body against her legs. 

“You ok?” he asked. 

Marinette grinned, reaching down to pick him up. “I’m fine, just starting to get tired,” Marinette whispered to him. 

Adrien purred in her arms as a voice called out. “H-hi Marinette! Congratulations!”

Turning she spied a smiling Nathaniel, a smart, artistic boy that she knew was surprisingly strong in the dispelling of magical fields. He was shy though, and according to Alya had a crush on her. Marinette returned his smile, happy to see him.

“Hey, Nathaniel! Looks like we will be in the same classes going forward for a bit longer. Your summoning is tomorrow, right?” Marinette asked. 

Nathaniel nodded, then held out a piece of paper “Yeh-yeah. I-I knew you could do it. Um, this is for you, for, you know… congratulations.” 

Marinette took the paper from him, shifting Adrien so he could climb onto her shoulders and sit in her hood. Nathaniel nodded once more and took off, clearly nervous about being around her for long periods of time. 

“He has a crush on you,” Adrien grumbled, sniffing at the paper in her hand. 

Marinette sighed. “That’s what Alya says. I’ve tried to make it clear that I don’t like him, but it’s just made him shyer.” 

Slowly, she opened the paper and watched, amazed as flowers bloomed across it. A small pond formed amongst the flowers and encouraging words flowed from a forming river into the pond. The words floated on the surface for several moments before sinking and new ones flowed into place. The whole thing was colored so well it almost looked real and even Adrien batted at one of the words, making a delighted sound when the drawing reacted, the words spinning across the pond in a scattering of letters. Marinette giggled pulling the paper away before Adrien got too enthusiastic. 

“He is so good at making these. He wants to be an artist of some kind when he gets out of school,” Marinette said, rolling the paper back up. 

“It looks like there are other people here waiting to talk to you. Do you want me to take it to your room?” Adrien asked.   
Marinette nodded, seeing Sabrina of all people moving closer to her eyeing Adrien with curiosity. Marinette handed the paper to Adrien who gripped it gently in his teeth. 

“Come right back, please, and don’t get into any mischief,” Marinette murmured. 

“I’ll put it on your stairs and come back,“ Adrien huffed, leaping off her shoulder to the ground, to disappear amongst the other guests. 

“He actually listens to you?” Sabrina asked, looking amazed while her changeling familiar twitched its gauzy white wings. 

Marinette nodded. “He’s smart, and we seem to have a connection, although we just got together. I’m pretty sure the only reason he wouldn’t listen is if I want him to do something stupid or something he knows he can’t do. How are you two getting along?”

Sabrina smiled as her changeling turned into a small snake with white butterfly wings. “Vani and I are good. He seems to be able to transform into a lot of different animals, but I think it tires him out to do too many.”

“Does he talk to you?” Marinette asked curiously, since this was one of the longest times she had ever spoken to Sabrina without Chloe interrupting. 

Sabrina shook her head, smiling as Vani’s scales shimmered through a spectrum of colors. “He has his way of communicating.” 

Suddenly her phone beeped and Vani’s scales shimmered to a grey color. “Oh, that’s right I have to go grab Chloe’s supplies! Well, Marinette, I guess I’ll see you at school!” 

“Uh, ok!” Marinette called after her retreating form, shaking her head slightly and wondering if Sabrina really would be ok. Her familiar didn’t seem to like Chloe, since the few times Marinette saw her today it transformed into things the girl found creepy or upsetting. So far Sabrina hadn’t tried to curb her familiar’s actions, which made Marinette wonder about the two of them in general. 

“Well, at least they will be easy to read,” Adrien murmured to her alone, leaping up onto some nearby furniture, startling one of the guests. 

Moving quickly, Marinette scooped him up, apologizing to the woman before whispering, “What do you mean?” 

Adrien sniffed. “Her familiar is like a barometer for her emotions and thoughts. I don’t think she realizes that yet, and I don’t think she is in tune with her inner self either. She’s got some work cut out for her.” 

“You can see that?” Marinette asked, as Adrien climbed up onto her shoulder to settle halfway in her hood, his front paws and head resting next to her cheek. 

“Same as you,” Adrien answered, feeling amused as another set of classmates came forward, eager and nervous to talk to Marinette now that she had a black cat familiar. 

Finally, after an hour or so the partygoers began to trickle out. The first ones to leave were those that had to summon the next day, and others left when they remembered homework that had to be done. Everyone was in high spirits as they left, and soon it was just Marinette, her parents, Alya, and the familiars. 

“Well, now! That was exciting!” Sabine sighed, leaning against Tom as he wrapped his arms around her. 

“I’ll say! I am so happy for you, Marinette! You summoned an awesome familiar!” Alya crowed, wrapping her arms around her in a hug. 

Marinette beamed. “Thank you by the way, Alya. If it weren’t for you, I never would have tried it, and I never would have found Adrien.”   
Hearing his name Adrien padded over to her side, making a single leap to land on her shoulder. Automatically her hand reached out to help him stabilize and Alya grinned at her. 

“You two were meant for each other, I can see it. Who cares what they say about black cats! I think he is an awesome partner for you,” Alya said, giving a sharp whistle for Nino. 

He came galloping out of another room a second later, Sabine’s hummingbird familiar following swiftly after. Skidding to a halt before Alya, his plumed tail waving, he gave them both a lopsided grin before standing on his hind legs to receive a pat from Adrien. The girls both laughed, overjoyed to see their familiars getting along, especially since they were technically opposing species. Rubbing Nino behind the ears, Alya sighed.

“Well, girl, I wish I could stay, but I gotta babysit tonight.” 

Marinette nodded and gave her friend one last hug, while being careful not to upset Adrien's balance. 

“I’ll see you at school tomorrow! And we can watch more of our class go for their summonings!” Marinette answered.

“Sounds good to me, girl!” Alya chuckled, and patted her side as she headed towards the stairs. “Come on, Nino, time to go get tortured by the siblings!”   
Nino gave a slight whine at her words but followed never less. Marinette watched them go, twisting her fingers in a pattern that was as old as their friendship. A flare of orange only she could see surrounded Alya as she descended the stairs and out of the corner of her eye she saw Adrien's green eyes glow briefly. Nino flashed orange as well and he turned, tail wagging to yip a thanks. Alya didn’t know about Marinette's spell, but Nino had clearly sensed it, since Adrien had expanded it to cover him as well. 

“Thanks Adrien,” Marinette murmured, reaching up to scratch his ears. Truthfully, Marinette had been wondering how she could expand the spell to cover Nino as well, since she no longer had the power to start such a spell back up. 

When they were kids, Alya hadn’t been able to do protections spells and when other kids cast harmful magics at her she would almost always get hurt, even though she was an excellent dodger because of it. When Marinette had moved to the area she had been furious, since one of the reasons they picked on her was because of her fox like ears. Unable to put a complete stop to other kids’ picking on Alya, Marinette had done the next best thing. She cast a protection spell on her that was tied almost directly to her magic. It was the strongest spell out there for protection, and if any adult had known about it she would have gotten into a lot of trouble, since she’d had to sneak into the adult section of the library in order to even find the spell in the first place. She couldn’t even begin to try and cast that spell these days, since she lost her power, but the spell over Alya had remained as strong as the day she cast it. Marinette was always glad for that since Alya tended to get herself into trouble periodically when sneaking about. Although, now that she had seen that little show of power from Adrien, Marinette was wondering exactly what her wonderful familiar’s skill set was.

“She is such a fox. I wonder if she is even going home,” Marinette sighed, deciding not to fret too much as she rubbed Adrien behind his ears. 

Adrien made a grumbling sound as he rubbed his head against her cheek. “Nino is in so much trouble picking a human like her. Hopefully, he will balance her and guide her restlessness.” 

Marinette snickered and hearing a throat clear she turned to face her parents, feeling a touch of worry niggle at her. It was obvious her parents were thrilled that she had summoned a familiar, but Marinette was a little worried that her parents might not be so thrilled that it was a black cat. They hadn’t really gotten a chance to discuss it since, as soon as they arrived at home, the party had taken up all their time. Now, though, they smiled at her, opening their arms wide and Marinette happily stepped into their embrace. 

“We are so proud of you sweetheart,” Sabine said, reaching out to rub a finger across Adrien's head as they released her. 

Marinette smiled at them, her worry fading slightly. “You guys aren’t disappointed I summoned a black cat?” 

Tom laughed. “I think he is quite the handsome fellow like that! Besides, I don’t think he is just a cat. Are you, son?” 

Adrien cringed on Marinette’s shoulder, ears falling flat, and Marinette blinked at her father, feeling confused. She knew from the start that Adrien wasn’t just a normal cat, but she wasn’t sure she understood her father either. 

“Papa?” Marinette asked, curiously feeling Adrien shift uncomfortably. 

“I guess that even if I meow you won’t believe me,” Adrien said out loud, making Sabine’s eyes go wide and Tom grin like a fool. 

Marinette gasped and snatched him off her shoulders, making him yowl in surprise. “You can talk out loud?!” 

Feet hanging and feeling foolish, Adrien sighed. “Yes, but I couldn’t talk to you at the circle or when everyone was here, because they would freak out and it’s bad enough I make them nervous as is.” He paused for a second, eyeing Marinette's almost dumbstruck look and cringed a little, his ears falling flat. “I’m sorry, please don’t be mad!” 

Marinette blinked rapidly, seeming to come back from the utter surprise that had struck her. “I… Wait, mad? NO! I’m not mad, this is amazing!” she cried, spinning him around before hugging him to her. “This is amazing, right?” She asked her parents, who could only laugh at her enthusiasm. 

“Yes, sweetie, it is. Now, I would suggest going and getting ready for bed since you are probably going to start feeling the effects of your spell casting very soon,” Sabine answered. “As for you, Adrien, why don’t you stay down here and we will figure out what you like to eat.” 

Adrien's lips crinkled and Marinette's grip on him tightened slightly but, before he could say anything, Marinette asked, “Can he come down in a minute? I want to show him my room.”

Her parents both nodded, as Tom put his arm around his wife and pulled her close. Seeing their agreement, Marinette darted for her room, cradling Adrien in her arms. Spying Nathaniel’s drawing on the step, she snatched it up and slipped inside. As soon as her door was shut and locked behind her Adrien leaped down, growing to panther size so he could look around easier. 

“Tiki?” Marinette called, sending Nathaniel’s drawing to her desk to hang up later.

“You did it!” Tiki squealed, flying down from a hidden cubby to hug Marinette's cheek. 

Marinette cupped her hands around Tiki, her face hurting from grinning so much. “I did, Tiki, I really did! This is Adrien!” 

Tiki flew from Marinette's cupped hands to hover before him. Pressing a tiny hand to his now oversized nose she mentally called, ”Hello Adrien, you are looking well. Plagg wasn’t too hard on you was he?”

“No, but he almost made me late! He had me pinned and suddenly decided my ears needed washing and I had to transform on him to pull free! He’s probably going to be all grumpy at me for that,” Adrien replied and Tiki giggled. 

“Are you guys talking in your minds?” Marinette asked, wide eyed, looking between Tiki and Adrien.

Tiki smiled, patting Adrien on the nose, watching him shrink down to a normal cat’s size once more. “Adrien and I have met in the familiars’ world. His guardian is a friend of mine, so I am happy to see he answered your call.”

Marinette looked confused. “So you knew I would summon Adrien?” she asked, feeling Adrien press himself against her ankles. 

“Yes,” Tiki answered, feeling that to answer any other way would just cause greater confusion. Plus, she could feel the barrier on Marinette's mind had weakened to the point that it was crumbling. Soon she would remember on her own, so there was no need to hide anything from her. 

“That’s why you weren’t worried and just taught me the power boost! You already knew that I would succeed! Di-did you see it in a vision or something?” Marinette yawned. 

Tiki smiled at her charge. “Something like that. Before I answer any more questions though, you should go get a bath and change. I can tell you are drained and you should get a good rest tonight.”

Marinette nodded and moved to get her night clothes, almost tripping over Adrien in the process. He slipped out of the way before she fully tripped and what felt like hands grabbed her shoulders, stabilizing her before she fell too far forward.   
“Oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry, Adrien!” Marinette hissed, dropping to her knees.

Adrien gave a start of laughter “It’s ok, Marinette, I forgot how clumsy you can be. Don’t worry, I’m built tough. I’ve got you.”

Marinette still looked unsure and Adrien padded up to her, pressing his body against hers. Marinette’s hand fell to his fur, brushing her fingers along the length of his body. He purred softly, feeling the light touch of her magic as she made sure she really hadn’t done any harm. Satisfied, she moved to stand, and almost stumbled since her magical drain was rapidly catching up to her. Once more she felt the presence of hands at her shoulders but this time she recognized Adrien's magic. 

“We are gonna have to talk about you,” Marinette yawned, managing to close her hands on some soft pjs. 

“Tomorrow,” Adrien promised. “I do have to go down and talk to your parents though.” 

“I’ll get the door. Marinette, go shower before you fall asleep on your feet,” Tiki ordered, using her magic to open the trap door. 

Adrien padded down the stairs, hearing the door shut behind him, and he knew that Tiki would get Marinette through her shower and into bed without too much trouble. He walked towards the kitchen, able to hear Marinette's parents as they moved things around and put food away. Sabine’s familiar flew down to him as he entered, buzzing around his ears for a second before flying back up to Sabine’s shoulder. Her parents turned to him curiously and Adrien felt his ears fall a little flat in nervousness. 

“You wanted to see me?” Adrien asked. 

Tom patted the counter. “Come up here, so you don’t break your neck looking up at us giants.” 

Adrien leaped the distance easily, settling his tail around his paws as he sat and waited, while Marinette's parents took a seat. 

Tom spoke first, tapping a finger to the side of his skull. “I can see that you’re not just a simple cat, but that being said I’m not really sure what else to think of you.” 

Adrien tilted his head to the side. “Marinette gets her vision from you then?” 

Tom laughed. “Yeah, the poor kid. It used to give her trouble as a youngling but she seems to have a handle on it now. I didn’t get the human magic from my family, I just got the familiars’ side.” 

Sabine wrapped her hand in his, smiling at him as her familiar flew up to sit on his head. His family came from a bear species of familiar which gave him his large build, but he only inherited his mother’s familiar’s magic which left him unable to do hardly any human magic spells. His familiar magic on the other hand gave him magical vision like his daughter, and it gave him excellent senses which he used in his baking to discern the best flavors as well as the best cooking times. It was one of the reasons he was such a successful baker, even though he held no magical degree. Usually a child born to familiar and human parents took their magic from one side or the other with little mixing in between. The magic, according to the magical scientists, was often times too different to mix well. Marinette was a rare child who had inherited both sides of her parents’ magic and the two different magics not only mixed well, but amplified each other.

“Enough about me, though. What are you?” Tom asked, being blunt as only a father could be. 

Adrien shifted uncomfortably. Plagg had drilled into his head not to reveal what he was to other creatures since he could pass as a familiar or a human. His species were one of the lost ones their kingdom trapped in a magic bubble that anyone had yet to figure out how to break, and he was unsure how to approach Tom’s question. 

“I... I don’t want to lie to you, but I’m not sure how to answer,” Adrien finally answered, looking up into Tom’s eyes.

Tom frowned, clearly not appreciating Adrien's answer, but before he could speak Sabine broke in.   
“Will your species be revealed at the classification spell?” Sabine asked. 

Adrien shook his head, having no desire to lie to these people, especially since he was their daughter’s partner. “I have my own magic and it will reflect whatever I want the spell to see. All the people will see when the spell checks me out is a changeling cat. It’s an odd enough designation to satisfy the parameters of my outward magical abilities without telling people what I truly am.” 

If anything, Tom looked more concerned and Sabine settled a hand on his arm. “Your kind is a secret then? Like how the dragons get when they come and visit?” 

Adrien sniffed. “Dragons are stuffy and I am not a dragon if that’s what you are worried about but, yes, my kind is very secretive and if they knew that I had answered a summoning they wouldn’t understand.”

Tom sighed and reached out to ruffle Adrien's fur. “You are one strange kid. The only thing I ask is that you protect my daughter. She isn’t as strong as she used to be and if you are really meant to be her partner she is going to need you. The tests she will face from here on out will only be tougher.” 

Adrien gave a slight purr and pressed a paw into Tom’s palm, before he pulled back all the way. “I will protect her and she just might surprise you with her strength.” 

Tom grinned, shaking Adrien's paw. “I’m sure she will with you to watch out for her, Adrien.”

Adrien withdrew his paw and stood to stretch. He was tired, and he hadn’t been able to sleep the night before, since he had known Marinette would be summoning him today. At his unconscious yawn, Sabine chuckled. 

“You look exhausted. Go get some sleep, since you will be going to school with Marinette tomorrow.” 

Adrien nodded again and padded to the edge of the counter before turning back. “Thank you for allowing me into your home. I know cat familiars in general aren’t looked upon with much fondness.” 

“That’s simply because people don’t know you. You would be welcome even if you were a mischievous destructive sprite,” Sabine answered. 

“Not that we are giving you permission to be destructive,” Tom broke in. “Your actions do reflect upon how our daughter is viewed after all.”

Adrien chuckled. “No worries here. To everyone but you, and probably Alya, I’ll just be a simple, somewhat smart cat.” 

He leaped off the counter and made his way back to Marinette's room, thankful that discussion had gone so well. In truth he hadn’t know what to expect, and he had been a little concerned since his refusal to state what he was could have gone badly. Marinette's parents seemed to understand though, and even if they didn’t fully like his desire for secrecy they respected it, which was wonderful. Phasing through her closed door, Adrien maneuvered her stairs to find Marinette sleeping already. Tiki wasn’t in sight so with another yawn he moved to Marinette's side curling up with a purr. Unconsciously, her hand tangled in his fur, strengthening his purr and ever so slowly Marinette smiled in her sleep at peace. 

Deep within her mind Marinette dreamed, and as she did she eventually found herself walking down a familiar, yet oddly decorated hall. Pictures were everywhere and doors of all shapes and sizes littered every inch of space. There were even some doors in the floor and Marinette was careful to avoid them as she moved down its length. Part of her realized she was dreaming and that part of her was what made her realize she was slowly making her way down a corridor made entirely out of memories. The realization made her pause in the middle of the hall, looking around herself in confusion. 

“Why am I here?” she wondered, and as if to answer the hall shifted until a cracked wall formed in the space before her. 

Unlike the rest of the hall this space was scarred with scorch marks and cracks leaving no doubt in Marinette's mind that something serious had gone down here. Reaching out, Marinette paused her fingertips a mere breath from the scarred wall’s surface. Did she really want to know what was beyond here? If there was a wall in her mind shouldn’t she leave it be? The thoughts didn’t really feel like her own, which made her even more curious than cautious. Looking over the wall once more, Marinette pressed her hand to it, deciding to figure it out once she made contact. The instant she touched the surface, however, Marinette knew this wall didn’t belong here. Suddenly furious, she slammed forward with every ounce of magic she had, wanting this white, scarred monstrosity turned to dust. Distantly she heard a yowl and then the wall shattered under her, sending her toppling forward into memories that had been long since sealed away.


	4. Chapter 4

A hand held steady just before her nose as Marinette blinked and took in the sights around her. Alya stood before her holding out a hand to help her up, but Alya was several years younger than what she had expected. She stared at her friend for a moment realizing that Alya looked exactly as she had when they were just little kids. Before she could think any further on the subject though Marinette's body seemed to move on its own, taking Alya’s hand, while folding the book she had borrowed into her bag before anyone saw it. 

“You look so young,” was what Marinette wanted to say, but instead what came out of her mouth was, “I found the spell Alya. If you want to view the Familiar world without glasses we can, it doesn’t take too many ingredients, and they are not hard to get. Even for us kids!”

Alya grinned at her, fox ears twitching in excitement. “We can do it with our level of power too?” At Marinette's nod she gave a squeal that didn’t sound quite human. “That’s so cool! Alright, give me a list of ingredients I need to get, and we can go for it tomorrow.” 

Marinette nodded, eagerly scribbling down ingredients that would allow them to open a window to the familiars’ world. A few minutes later the two girls separated, lists carefully in hand, and promised to meet up in the afternoon once school had let out. They would see each other in school, but they were not in the same main class which meant that other than just before school, Familiar class, and recess, they wouldn’t have much time to chat. As soon as she made it in the door she asked her parents a question, one that could ruin all the plans she had just made with Alya.

“Mama, Papa, can I go play with Alya tomorrow after school? We were thinking of going to the park,” Marinette asked, crossing her fingers behind her back for luck. 

Seeing Sabine was busy with dinner, Tom answered, lifting Marinette into the air. “Sure, kiddo, just don’t get into too much mischief, and if you do…” 

“Don’t get caught!” Marinette giggled as Tom tossed her into the air then set her back on her feet. 

“Tom, do not teach our daughter your bad habits!” Sabine chided gently. “And, Marinette, go wash up while this finishes, please!” 

“Yes, mama!” Marinette called back, running to her room in the next instant.   
Her door flew open as she neared, the use of her magic being negligible. “Aquis!” she called out, and water flowed from the tap in her bathroom as she tossed her bag and other items into the air.   
Each item flew to its proper space, and she was quick to clean her hands before running back out of her room. Dinner passed pleasantly, with her parents asking about her day, and Marinette happily answering them. She was most excited about their introduction into the Familiar world, which was a class everyone was required to attend, and it was the only class she had with Alya this year. 

“We got to view the Familiar world through something other than the glasses today, mama! We got to see the underwater areas, and this really big plain area! Kim says he swears he saw a dragon, but I don’t believe him. I did see this weird bird though. It looked almost like a bird of prey, but it had butterfly wings instead!” Marinette said, making both her parents smile warmly at her. 

“It was probably a species of changeling, sweetheart. Now make sure you finish your vegetables or no cookies before bed,” Sabine said, smoothing a hand through her daughter’s hair. 

Marinette leaned into the touch, bouncing eagerly “I will, mama!” 

Dinner finished with little fanfare and Marinette helped her parents clean up, before racing up to her room to get the rest of the ingredients ready. She had already borrowed the things needed from the kitchen, and now all she needed were a few things from her garden. Once she was done, she joined her parents for an evening cookie before getting ready for bed, the excitement of tomorrow thrumming through her chest. The thrill of excitement only grew the whole next day, and practically doubled as they both met up after school. 

“Are you allowed to go?” Marinette asked, hopping in place as Alya grinned widely.

“Yep! I say we go to our secret clubhouse to do it!”

Marinette nodded and together they ran for their secret clubhouse, which wasn’t really a clubhouse at all. In reality, their clubhouse was a back street that opened into an almost courtyard style space. It was set far off the main roads, down two different side alleys, and the two girls had set magic dampening runes in the walls so they could practice some spells without people coming to investigate. The two of them had built a clubhouse out of boxes and Marinette had placed a sealing spell over them, so the whole thing was actually waterproof. Now, they often used the space as a storage area for any ingredients they didn’t want their parents to find. 

“So, how do we start?” Alya squeaked, bouncing on the balls of her feet with excitement. 

Marinette was just as excited, but she forced herself to stay calm knowing that this spell they were about to attempt was the strongest thing they had ever tried. It might even be dangerous, but Marinette shook her head, tossing the thoughts aside.   
“You draw the circles! Two of them like this, then a smaller circle here,” Marinette answered, showing Alya the diagram she had copied. 

Alya took the paper and grabbed the can of paint they had brought for this spell. As she laid out the circle using a piece of string and a fixed stick, Marinette used her time to assemble and mix the ingredients they were going to use.   
Finally, they were ready, standing in a smaller circle with the larger one spread before them. 

“Do the lines look funny to you?” Marinette asked, peering at the lines they had drawn. They looked odd to her, almost wavy like how the street got when it was really hot outside. It unnerved her a bit, and she rechecked all the steps to reassure herself they were doing this correctly. All they were doing was opening a viewing plane so even if it went wrong, the worst consequence should only be exhaustion.

Alya glanced about, studying the lines then the paper in her hand. “No, I drew them just like the paper…” 

Marinette shook her head as the waviness of the lines settled out. That had been weird, almost like something had added itself to the spell they drew.   
“Are you ok, Marinette? If you don’t want to do this we don’t have to. After all, you’re the one that has to start the spell, since I don’t have the power to,” Alya said, patting her friend on the shoulder. 

Marinette blinked, looking a touch confused, but then shook her head. “No, I want to do this, Alya! Besides, this needs both of our power to start it up, so we can both see the familiar world. Just pool some unfocused magic into your hands, like you did with your fire the other day. I can take it from there.” 

With a grin, Alya did as Marinette asked, excitement buzzing through her even as the odd butterfly mark on her hand burned slightly. She ignored it, watching Marinette instead as she pulled a pinch of her magic up, making it look like a thread that she then wove into her own magic. Alya had never seen anyone do magic like Marinette, since she seemed to be able to call pure magic into existence and weave it like it was a physical object. So far she had only done it in front of Alya, making her keep it a secret, but one day Alya knew her secret would be revealed and she wondered how others would react. Not having a clue as to what Alya was thinking, Marinette wove the threads of their magic together, making sure hers didn’t overpower Alya’s weaker magic, before bending down and pressing it all to the magic circle. 

“Spots on,” she whispered, as the magic threads in her hands were pulled into the spell. 

“Spots on?” Alya asked, crinkling her nose as the magic activated around them. 

Marinette shrugged sheepishly. “Papa always teases me about my freckles and asks if I have my spots on. Mama yells at him for it, but I kinda think it suits me for some reason.” 

Alya giggled, knowing that Marinette's papa loved Marinette's freckles and only teased her because of it. Alya thought they were cute on her as well and she was glad Marinette didn’t hate her spots anymore.   
They both went quiet as the spell around them really took and they both gasped, grabbing for the other’s hand as the circle before them twisted, the ground shimmering through a nauseating wave of colors before blanking into a misty white color. Both girls panted, clinging to each other, as the mist slowly began to clear and shapes began to take form. 

“That…that took more magic than expected, right?” Alya asked, her legs shivering a bit.

Marinette nodded, feeling a tremble go through her as well. “Yeah, it definitely did, but look!” she cried, pointing at the circle which had cleared enough to show… blue grass?

“That grass is blue, right?” Alya asked, peering down at the rapidly clearing view. 

“It’s more of a blue-green color but, yeah, it’s definitely not our world!” Marinette answered with a squeal, overjoyed that they had managed to do the spell correctly.  
Alya bounced beside her, overjoyed as well. “We did it! We totally did it! This is so cool, Marinette!” 

They both stared at the ground below them, entranced as the view shifted slowly. Over the next few minutes they had both sat, still staring at the view as creatures of all shapes and sizes crossed the field they were watching. They both smiled as a family of odd deer like creatures with wavy jelly like strands for hair moved out of the trees, but then frowned as they froze before turning and darting back into them. A kitten suddenly darted from the woods, a shadow following it and it spun around, a black bolt issuing from it’s body to strike something in the trees. Light flashed in their view and both girls blocked their eyes for a moment

“Did you see that?! Was that a kitten?” Marinette gasped excitedly, pointing at the circle. Alya, however, stood, spotting a shadow moving across their view, barely noticing the still running kitten as she did. An odd feeling went through her and with a bit of trepidation she looked towards the sky spotting what had created the shadow.

Alya grabbed Marinette. “What is that?!” 

Hearing the sudden alarm in Alya’s voice, Marinette glanced up to see the strangest combination of a hawk and moth like animal swooping towards them, claws extended. 

“Down!” Marinette yelped, taking a leaf from her friend’s book and conjuring a fireball that exploded upon impact with the hawk-moth-like creature.   
It shrieked, breaking off its downward attack to sweep back up into the sky, where it wheeled for several turns, not making a sound.

“What is that thing?! Are we in trouble for casting the spell?” Alya asked, fearfully, then gasped, grasping at her hand in pain.

“I don’t know, Alya, that thing doesn’t look like an official anything! What’s wrong?!” Marinette cried in return, feeling Alya dropping to her knees. 

“My hand… it hurts…” Alya whimpered, her skin turning pale. 

Marinette pulled at her friend’s hand, uncovering a purple butterfly like mark that pulsed through several colors as she watched. “I thought that was a birthmark!”   
Alya glanced at it, the mere sight of the butterfly suddenly making her nauseous, and then she saw the hawk-moth thing diving for them once more. “Marinette!” she croaked lunging up to slam Marinette down out of the hawk-moth’s way. Claws slammed into her back, throwing them both forward over the warded lines. Marinette screamed Alya’s name as the impact sent them flying, but Marinette already knew her friend was unconscious. The spell around them twisted as they slammed into the un-warded area, and with the sound of shattering glass they were suddenly falling through an aqua sky. Marinette clutched Alya to her as she spied the ground rapidly coming at them. This was going to hurt when they struck the ground, Marinette knew, but still she braced herself wishing she knew even a small anti-gravity spell. Seconds before hitting the ground, a disturbance shifted the air around them and with a sensation like that of falling into leaves, their speed slowed. Marinette cringed, but only a foot or so from the ground Marinette realized they were hovering, and she unrolled herself from around her friend. 

“What the-“ Marinette started then, whatever spell held them released suddenly, dropping them the last foot or so right onto her tailbone.   
“Oww…” Marinette complained, then sat up, spying two slash marks in Alya’s shirt. “Alya! Alya!!” Marinette called, shaking her friend, but unfortunately she didn’t respond. Marinette could see blood however, and with a grimace she pressed her hands to Alya’s back, feeling the wound and how drained her friend suddenly was of magic. 

“Just hold on Alya…” Marinette murmured, focusing her magic into a spell that returned skin and bones to their original state. Even as she healed the wounds Marinette could feel some of her magic being pulled away, and she frowned as she realized it was being pulled towards Alya’s one hand where the butterfly sat. 

“Um, is she ok?” a small male voice asked, making Marinette jerk and look around frantically. Two very small bright green eyes peered at her from the grasses and, as Marinette watched, a small black kitten shifted a little further into the light.   
Marinette's healing spell flickered out under her hands, all of Alya’s injuries having been healed, and a small part of her energy restored. “Uh, we were attacked by   
something and the spell broke… She is going to be ok, I think. Were you the one who slowed our fall?” Marinette asked, feeling odd about talking to a kitten.   
The kitten nodded, then grimaced, and Marinette could see that he was hurt as well. Gently, Marinette shifted Alya so that she was laying flat off her lap and held out a hand to the kitten. 

“You look like you’re injured, can I take a look? I might be able to heal you,” Marinette whispered, sliding onto her knees as she did.   
The kitten shifted a little, his green eyes rising to meet her blue ones and the instant they truly met Marinette could feel a connection between them flare into life. The kitten’s ears perked and it limped forwards, revealing a slash mark across its shoulder.   
Marinette hissed in sympathy and the kitten froze before her, looking a touch startled. “It’s ok,” Marinette soothed, reaching for him, the spell already fixed in her mind. “It looks like a surface cut and that’s it.” 

Gently, Marinette wrapped her magic cloaked hands around the kitten, lifting him up and she could feel his own magic reaching out in response to hers. She half expected it to fight against her magic, seeing as he was just a kitten, albeit a very strange one, but instead it twined around her magic, seeming to learn her spell as it was knitting his flesh back together. Within a few moments Marinette was done, her spell dying off, and she slumped a little feeling the effects of doing several powerful spells all at once. 

“You feel tired,” The kitten said, looking up from Marinette’s lap where she had settled him. 

Marinette nodded. “I am, but I recover fairly quick and hopefully my friend will be waking soon. Once she does we will have to figure out how to get home.” 

The kitten stretched and jumped off her lap, turning to look up at her. “So you aren’t from around here?” 

Marinette shook her head. “No, we fell into this world by accident through a visual spell, which I didn’t even think was possible. In any case, my name is Marinette and that is Alya. What’s your name, anyway?”

The kitten’s head tilted slightly. “Um, I don’t have one. Plagg calls me Kit or Trouble or Noir sometimes, but I don’t have a name like Marinette.” 

Marinette's lips pinched into a frown. “Do you want a name?” 

The kitten shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess so, at some point. Plagg said I would find a name for myself as I got older.” 

Tapping a finger to her cheek Marinette said softly, “Well, I don’t like the idea of calling you Kit. Noir is really just a color, and I don’t think Trouble really suits you… How about Felix?” 

The kitten’s eyes narrowed and his ears curled back. “Pass,” he hissed, in distaste. 

“Mmmm, yeah, it doesn’t suit you… Oh, how about Louis?” Marinette asked. 

The kitten paused, ears twitching as he thought about it, then answered, “That’s a better name than Felix, but I don’t think it’s quite me either.”

Marinette nodded, accepting his answer, and proceeded to call out other names she had heard before or had made up. “Um, how about Adrien?” she wondered, realizing that she was starting to run out of names

Instantly, the kitten’s ears perked, his eyes bright. “Oh, say that again!” 

“Adrien,” Marinette complied, and a shiver ran through the kitten, followed by a burst of green light that made Marinette shut her eyes. 

“I love it!” a distinctly boyish voice cried as warm hands gripped hers, making Marinette's eyes fly open. 

A boy the same age as Marinette now crouched before her, as naked as a jaybird. “Y-you… you’re human?” Marinette gasped surprised, then her mind registered the no clothes thing. “You’re naked!” she shrieked, yanking her hands away and covering her eyes. 

“Oh, oops,” The boy muttered. “Sorry, I didn’t put on clothes this morning since they make my fur itch. Here, this form will be better.” 

Another flash of green lit up shadows behind her closed eyelids, then then warm hands pulled at Marinette's, making her uncover her eyes. Slowly, Marinette opened her eyes, finding the boy now dressed in black leather, with a set of real cat ears twitching in his golden hair. Glancing down, Marinette noticed the gentle way he held her hands, since tiny sharp claws adorned his fingers and a twitching tail caught her attention as it swayed behind him. 

Adrien grinned, revealing sharp canines. “This form automatically comes with clothes because it’s a magic in-between thing. At least, that’s how Plagg explained it. I’m a Grimalkin, but from now on I’m going to be called Adrien!” 

He bounced on his toes, making Marinette giggle in relief, and she squeezed Adrien's hands, ignoring the prickle of claws since she instinctively knew he wouldn’t hurt her. “I’m happy you are no longer naked and that you like your name. Would you like to play with Alya and I once she wakes up?” 

Adrien nodded enthusiastically, pulling Marinette to her feet as he shot up. “I would love to play with you two! We can play tag, or climb some trees, and I can introduce you to Plagg an-“ 

A high pitched screech cut him off and both kids spun around to find the Hawk-moth like creature diving from the sky only to pull up as it noticed their attention had shifted. 

“That thing again?!” both kids cried in dismay, then looked at each other in shock. 

Adrien's eyes narrowed. “It’s what attacked you and made you fall, isn’t it?” 

Marinette nodded, then eyeing his shoulder she suddenly had a flash of inspiration. “It’s what hurt you too, isn’t it!”

Adrien nodded sheepishly. “I left Plagg’s protection spell to go play and it tried to carry me off. It’s a nasty conglomeration.”

Marinette let a small angry hum pass her lips, making Adrien cock his head at her a bit worried. “You ok, Marinette?” he asked, a touch nervous as her pink aura flickered into existence. 

Marinette glared at the sky where the creature was wheeling in clear preparation of attack. “That thing hurt Alya and you for no reason. I’ll bet if we let it, it will come after all of us and hurt us again. Well, I won’t let it hurt my friends again!” she declared, creating a ball of light in her hand, ready to let it fly as the creature began a dive to attack. 

Adrien’s hand squeezed hers drawing her attention, his eyes were wide, with a bright kind of energy sparkling behind them that Marinette couldn’t place. “You really mean that? I mean we just met, will you really be my friend?” 

Marinette nodded decisively having already thought this through. “I like you, Adrien, and to take this thing down we will have to be more than friends. We are now partners and we are gonna pluck that ugly hawk-moth thing’s feathers!” she declared, throwing her ball of light as the creature came too close. 

The hawk-moth dodged, but the ball still exploded as it swooped past, catching and burning the beast a bit. It banked away, breaking off its attack on them as it shrieked, and Adrien stepped forwards. Normally he would never even think of fighting unless he were totally cornered but Adrien felt brave with Marinette at his back. Brave and strong and he didn’t know why, but he felt determined not to see any harm come to Marinette.

“If I shrink can you throw me at it? I can shred its wings that way and we can get it on the ground,” Adrien asked, turning back to face her. 

Marinette's hands lit up again and she moved, pressing them to Adrien's chest. Green tendrils of light wrapped around his body, coating him, and he shivered as the light vanished. “What was that?” he asked, feeling odd though not in a bad way. 

“The strongest protection spell I know,” Marinette replied as the hawk-moth dove for them again. 

Adrien nodded swiftly, shrinking and leaping into Marinette's arms as a cat once more. A second spell coated him and Marinette explained as she waited for the beast to come in range. “The second spell is a tethering spell. Once you hit that ugly thing it will transfer to it and I’ll make it so it can’t fly again, as long as we can get it on the ground.” 

The hawk-moth was in range in seconds and Marinette heaved Adrien into the air, realizing at the last second that, no matter what she threw at it, the beast wasn’t breaking off a third time. Diving for Alya Marinette threw a shield over them both, activating Adrien's protection as he landed on the thing’s back.   
A sound like shattering glass echoed as the Hawk-moth smashed into Marinette's shield, then flipped over it when it didn’t break. The beast tried to correct its trajectory but Adrien had already damaged its wings, making them practically useless. 

“Adrien!” Marinette cried, seeing his kitten form get tossed off just before the beast slammed into the ground on its back. Silver light shrouded the Hawk-moth as it struggled to right itself and the tethering spell kicked into life, binding it to the ground with silvery pink treads that multiplied as it struggled.   
Even giving the thing a wide berth, its head twisted to follow her movements its bulging multifaceted eyes flashing a range of colors, even as it snapped its ugly beak at her. Marinette stuck her tongue out at it before moving into the higher grass. 

“Adrien?” Marinette called again, turning as he answered, “Here!” 

He slid between the grass strands far larger than what he had been before as a kitten, but even still he barely moved the grass until he was at Marinette's feet. Without even thinking, Marinette dropped to her knees, wrapping her arms around him.

“I saw you fly off, you didn’t get hurt did you?” Marinette asked. 

Adrien butted his head into Marinette's chin, a purr rumbling through him as she held him close. “Nope, I even landed on my feet! Did we get the thing?” 

They pulled away from each other as the thing in question shrieked and Marinette nodded, rising to her feet as he transformed back into his halfway form. “So what do we do now?” 

Adrien shrugged, at a loss as they moved back into the trampled area. The beast was still tethered to the ground but both of them could tell it was starting to break free. It was snapping its beak at Marinette's spell, breaking it apart a little at a time, and the two of them glanced at each other a bit nervously. 

“Should we try to run?” Adrien asked. “I can carry your friend.” 

Marinette frowned. It was probably a good idea to run away at this point, but something told her that if they left the area she and Alya might never be able to return home. Besides, the creature would still come after them and it wouldn’t be as easy to bring down a second time, especially since it was already repairing its wings magically. 

“You said the creature was a conglomeration. How do you know that?” Marinette asked, eyeing the creature as it snapped another line.

“I can see it. Can’t you?” Adrien replied, pointing at the Hawk-moth.

Shaking her head, Marinette sighed. “No, I can’t see anything. It just looks like a giant monster thing to me. But if you say it’s a conglomeration that means we can un-conglomerate it!” 

Adrien frowned, an idea forming in his head. Plagg had been teaching him deconstruction magic since Adrien apparently had an affinity for it. Sometimes he would accidently ash his clothing when it was too tight or caught on something. Strangely enough he could feel Marinette’s magic and he could tell that she was a perfect counterpoint to his magic. Together, their magic’s combined, they could take this thing apart without killing the creature at the center. Slowly, almost nervously, Adrien held out his hand, black wisps edged in green floating about his palm. “I need your magic to combine with mine. Do you trust me?” 

Marinette eyed the wisps and then called her own magic into being in her hand, making silver-edged pink strands come into existence. “Partners, right?” she asked, making Adrien grin as she held out her hand.

“Partners!” Adrien crowed, bursting with joy as he took her hand.

Their magic combined, burst into a rainbow of light, and suddenly within her mind Marinette could hear Adrien as he thought, “It looks like a transformed butterfly with the use of feathers and stuff.” 

Looking back at the hawk-moth like thing, Marinette realized he was right and she could suddenly see magic in its purest form. With a gasp, Marinette moved forward towards the creature, Adrien matching her steps and the hawk-moth froze in its attempting escape. Marinette could see the butterfly in the center of the creature, except it wasn’t quite a butterfly, in fact it looked more like a fairy than anything. 

“Lets get it out of there,” Marinette called in her mind, and Adrien rumbled his agreement. 

The combined light, their combined magic, shot from their entwined hands piercing the Hawk-moth creature until it reached and surrounded the fairly like being in the center. The moment it was totally surrounded the hawk-moth gave a shrill cry then vanished in an explosion of black bubbles. 

Adrien and Marinette dropped to their knees, panting heavily, even as their hands remained entwined. Grins lifted their lips as they glanced at each other, but before they could try and congratulate themselves on a job well done, a furious snarl filled the air. 

“You idiot, kit, WHAT DID YOU DO?!” an oversized panther demanded, as it slunk into the now truly trampled clearing. 

Marinette gasped, turning to face it, and Adrien poofed back into a kitten stepping forward so he was between the panther and Marinette. The panther didn’t even seem to notice Marinette, reaching out to slap a paw into Adrien, who was standing his ground. Unfortunately for the panther, Marinette's protection spell was still very much in effect and he yowled as it came to life, zapping the crud out of him. Darting forward Marinette scooped Adrien up and backed away as the panther eyed his paw, then the two of them once more. 

“No, Marinette, wait!” Adrien meowed from her arms, even as the panther’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

“I won’t let you hurt him!” Marinette declared, taking a last step back so that she was within the circle that the tethering spell had created. If needed she could activate it with a little effort, but it seemed like the panther knew Adrien so maybe she wouldn’t have to…

“Plagg, don’t you dare scare that poor girl anymore! She freed that precious little fairy with the kit’s help! She couldn’t have done it without him!” a feminine voice scolded. 

Marinette glanced behind her in time to find a small fairy like creature kneeling beside an even smaller one, tinged in a reddish glow. The panther let out a growl then sat down, eyeing the two of them. 

“This is between us grimalkins, Tiki! I told him to stay within the boundaries. None of this would have happened if he had just listened!” Plagg retorted, happy to see the smaller fairy flutter off as soon as Tiki finished healing it. 

“Are they talking about you?” Marinette asked, mentally fearing to speak out loud. 

“Yeah, but I was bored…” Adrien bemoaned, making Marinette chuckle and kiss the top of his head. 

“Kit, come here,” Plagg said, his eyes narrowing at seeing Marinette kiss his head. 

Marinette tightened her grip slightly as she felt Adrien shift to jump down. “His name is Adrien and I won’t let you hurt him, if that’s what you are gonna do!” 

“You named him?” Plagg growled incredulously, even as behind her Tiki giggled. 

“I helped him choose a name!” Marinette retorted, feeling mutinous, even facing a giant, black seemingly angry panther. 

“Plagg, let them be, you can already see what has happened here,” Tiki hummed, floating into the air to land on Plagg’s head. 

“That’s the problem, Tiki! How in the world did this happen? There is no way she should have been able cross, so how did she get here?!” Plagg snarled, sounding ferocious. 

“Her name’s Marinette, Plagg, and she fell here when that hawk-moth thing attacked her and her friend!” Adrien cried from Marinette arms. 

Both Tiki and Plagg froze. “Hawkmoth?” they asked and Marinette nodded. 

“It looked like a hawk and a moth got smashed together or something, but once we got it on the ground Adrien showed me what it was supposed to look like. Alya and I had made a viewing spell and then that thing knocked us into the center of it. I don’t know how it happened, but we fell through into this world. I didn’t even think it was possible.” 

“You must have done something wrong or someone added something to your spell,” Tiki said gently, patting Plagg on the head as he grumbled and started moving towards Alya.

“We didn’t!” Marinette insisted watching him nervously, even as she continued speaking to Tiki. “I copied the spell right out of the adult book and the lines were perfect! Well sorta perfect. They went a bit hazy just before we started.”

Plagg growled suddenly, as he looked Alya over, hissing to Tiki. “I knew it. She’s marked! That’s how that damn mans spy got through.”

“Do you want me to put you down?” Marinette asked Adrien mentally as she moved to her friend’s side. She wasn’t sure about the big panther Plagg, but at this point she didn’t think he would try and hurt any of them. At least, she hoped he wouldn’t. 

“Not really, I think I’m small enough to sit in your hood. How about that?” Adrien replied. 

“Sure!” Marinette hummed, passing Adrien up onto her shoulder. 

Adrien slid into her hood easily, wiggling around so he could prop his head and paws on her shoulder. The look Plagg gave him made Adrien glad he hadn’t jumped down. Plagg probably would have snatched him up by his scruff and transported him home if he had. 

Marinette moved to Alya’s other side, eyeing the now purple mark on her friend’s skin. “That mark was supposed to be a birthmark. But it flashed different colors and then Alya passed out and I could feel her magic being pulled out of her! Can you take the mark away? I think it’s hurting her.” 

Plagg looked up at Marinette then back down at the mark, a small huff issuing through his teeth. For some reason, Marinette had the feeling he was talking to Tiki the same way that Marinette had spoken to Adrien.

Plagg bared his fangs and Tiki giggled patting his head before he raised one massing paw, black tendrils flitting between his wicked looking claws. Outloud, and mostly for Marinette's benefit, he said, “I can remove it, and once I do we need to have a conversation on exactly what you two have done. You’re too young to be forming the kind of bond you guys have, which is exactly why travel to the familiar world is forbidden.”

Marinette didn’t really understand, and neither did Adrien, but they both had a feeling that whatever had happened between them was permanent. “Ok,” they both echoed anyways, since Plagg was eyeing them in such a way that demanded a response.

Plagg huffed in irritation while Tiki giggled, fluttering up off Plagg so that he could do what was needed. “We can have some cookies and drinks while the grump growls at you two. Don’t worry too much about it though, this just means that by the time you have to truly summon a familiar, the bond you share will be fully mature. Adrien here will be able to access all his abilities and you, Marinette, will probably find that some of his powers will be at your disposal.” 

“Some of Adrien's powers?” Marinette asked curiously, her mind skipping right over the Familiar talk. 

Tiki nodded, tapping Marinette on the nose. “You have a strong familiar presence in your family. I can feel it in your blood. Your bond with Adrien here, even though it’s very new, is activating your familiar blood. You will probably be able to start seeing all kinds of magic and spells as the bond matures.”

“Really? That’s so cool!” Marinette squeaked, scratching a suddenly purring Adrien behind his ears. 

“Got it!” Plagg snarled, breaking into their conversation, and Marinette gasped as Plagg fastened his teeth into Alya’s arm. 

Marinette nearly moved to try and stop him but then she realized that Plagg’s teeth, while they looked like they were imbedded in Alya’s arm, really were not. Instead, they seemed to be phasing through her arm and a second later Plagg yanked back, pulling a black butterfly from her skin. 

Alya gasped shooting upright and nearly smacking into Plagg as he crushed the butterfly between his teeth. Marinette dropped to her knees, making Adrien cling to her as she grabbed Alya.  
“Alya, are you ok?” Marinette called, grabbing hold of Alya as she swayed. 

“He was stealing my magic,” Alya whispered, then her eyes slid shut and Marinette had to catch her as she slumped over again.

“Alya? Hey, Alya, Wake up!” Marinette called, shaking her friend lightly, even as she held her to her chest. Worried and confused she looked up to see Tiki and Plagg staring at her. 

“She will be fine, kit,” Plagg sighed. “Your fox friend was marked at a very early age, so she will be tired for a while. The good news is her magic will fully rebound in the next few weeks. With the mark gone she will mature properly now.” 

Glancing down, Marinette did see that Alya’s skin was finally returning to a healthy shade of brown. Then a secondary shimmer seemed to light up under her skin and Marinette opened her mouth to say something when the whole world seemed to twist violently. Adrien yowled loudly on her shoulder and Marinette activated her protections on the two of them, as a furious roar seemed to echo from far away. Someone yelled her name, and then she landed flat on her side, exhaustion making her limbs feel like lead. 

“Marinette! Marinette! Help!” a voice mewled and Marinette forced her eyes open. Immediately, she realized they had returned and glaring at her was an odd purple-dressed man. He had a silver mask on his head, a cane in one hand, and in the other he held a struggling Adrien. 

“LET HIM GO!” Marinette screamed, slamming her magic forward and into the man. She didn’t have time to think of a spell or anything so Marinette did what she did best and simply manipulated pure magic into an attacking force that caught the man totally off guard.   
The man hollered in surprise and dropped Adrien who darted immediately into Marinette's arms. 

“Are you ok?!” Marinette cried, holding him close.

“He said he was going to take me away from you! He was going to trap me and I couldn’t get away!” Adrien answered, his shudders vibrating against Marinette's chest. “He’s Dangerous. We need to run!” 

“No, you need to go back and get help. I can’t leave Alya, I have a feeling he’s the one who put that icky mark on her!” Marinette replied, glancing up to find that the man had recovered and was looking rather pissed. 

“I don’t want to leave you!” Adrien replied, and Marinette could feel the panic in him. 

“No choice, Adrien… Do you trust me?” Marinette asked, as her aura flared to life. 

They had just met but she had her answer as Adrien’s aura flared as well, mixing with her own and creating a rainbow of colors. With his magic mixing into hers Marinette could feel the portal that they had been pulled through, and she could feel that Adrien still had an anchor at the other end of the portal, causing it to not fully close. His anchor couldn’t come through to their side since the portal was only meant for them, but Marinette just knew that she could send Adrien back. For a brief moment she wondered if it was a part of his in-borne magic to be able to pass between worlds, but she didn’t have time to contemplate it since the nasty purple man was preparing for an attack. 

“Stay safe and go home!” Marinette cried, activating the magic from the portal. 

In an instant magic wrapped around a startled looking Adrien and with a pop he was gone from sight and her arms. Marinette felt the loss instantly but she didn’t have time to feel sorry for herself because the nasty man was coming at her. 

“You, stupid brat, what did you do?!” the man snarled. 

Marinette scrambled to her feet, keeping herself between him and Alya. “I sent him home where you can’t hurt him! You’re the one who sent that hawk-moth thing after, us aren’t you!”

“I am Hawkmoth, you foolish child, and now I think I shall have to teach you a lesson,” Hawkmoth answered, the silver mask looking suddenly sinister, as black butterflies filled the air. 

Marinette had a mere three seconds before the swarm leaped at her, and she pulled the residue energy from the circle around her to literally light up the air around her with lightning. The butterflies turned to ash as they touched the fiery brands, and Hawkmoth gaped in surprise before Marinette turned the lightning storm on him.

“Go away!” Marinette yelled, as the lightning surged for him. 

The butterflies swarmed, suddenly too thick to see, and as the lightning ashed the lot of them Marinette realized Hawkmoth was no longer standing before her. Panting heavily, Marinette glanced about, taking a step back to be closer to Alya if something more happened. She was exhausted at this point, her magic drained to dangerous levels, and in truth she was just a scared little kid. 

“You have far too much power for a normal child,” Hawkmoth murmured, making Marinette shriek and spin around. 

Her fist flashed out, the additional spell of power she added to it making it a dangerous combo. The blow struck Hawkmoth in the chest, since he had arrogantly come far too close, and it knocked the wind out of him while actually fracturing at least two ribs. Furious, and in a lot of pain, Hawkmoth struck back with a backlash spell that blasted Marinette off her feet and into the concrete. She bounced once, then slid to a stop, the pain of the impact nearly sending her unconscious. With a whimper Marinette forced her eyes open and saw the nasty Hawkmoth man bending over Alya, a black butterfly in hand. 

“NO!” Marinette shrieked, slamming almost all the power she had left in an attack that sent Hawkmoth flying. 

He managed to partially shield himself, bits of lightning and energy scoring the area around him. In the next instant the spell petered out and Marinette tried to roll over even as she made sure Alya’s shield was safely up and sound. Hawkmoth wouldn’t be able to hurt Alya now. Marinette's shield was fully active at this point and barring killing her it wouldn’t collapse under any attack. 

“Clearly, I chose the wrong child. Since you are so damn insistent, I’ll just take your magic instead,” Hawkmoth snarled, making Marinette focus on him.

His clothes were no longer pristine and like the rest of him a scorch mark or two marred the silver mask covering his head. Hawkmoth even looked tired and Marinette stuck her tongue out at him as he cast a spell that bound her where she lay. Marinette couldn’t move even though she struggled to, as Hawkmoth came closer. 

“Leave us alone!” Marinette yelled, wondering why no one had come to investigate the presence of battle magic yet. They should have, since Marinette alone had used a fairly powerful spell that was easy to detect. Of course she didn’t know that Hawkmoth had placed a dampening spell and shield around the area that they were in. Even if Marinette had chosen to run with Adrien they would have been trapped by the shield. 

Hawkmoth stopped at Marinette’s side, peering down at her with a look of irritation. “I refuse to be foiled by a mere child. Since you are so adamant about protecting your friend and that disgusting creature I suppose I shall have to settle for your magic instead.” His finger lit up with a black light and, suddenly, he was holding a struggling black butterfly by the wings. 

Fear surged through Marinette and she whimpered, trying to move away. The bonds pinning her stretched slightly and Marinette pushed one hand against them trying to focus the dregs of her power into fighting back. A cane came down a moment later, pinning her hand to the ground, and she yelped in pain as Hawkmoth bent down, the butterfly in hand. 

“The spell should still work even though it was meant for the other one. Their magic’s are similar anyways,” Hawkmoth mused, speaking more to himself than to Marinette. 

Marinette didn’t understand, but she knew that her magic was very different from Alya’s and whatever the man was about to do he was about to do it wrong. Before she could say a word however the butterfly made contact with her skin and Marinette screamed as it felt like he was trying to brand her. Her magic instantly fought against the contact, and since the mark wasn’t calibrated specifically for her, it wasn’t able to anchor correctly. Hawkmoth didn’t notice, he saw the flash of color as the butterfly melded to the child’s skin and it was clear he thought everything had gone smoothly. 

“There, that wasn’t so hard now, was it?” Hawkmoth asked cruelly, twisting the end of the staff further into Marinette's hand. 

“Meany, nasty purple man,” Marinette hissed at him, her bright blue eyes narrowed in pain as she battled internally for control over her magic. 

At her words Hawkmoth frowned, lifting his cane from her abused hand. “Mmm, yes, as I said before, you little brat, I am Hawkmoth. However I don’t suppose I should just leave you like this. If you know the secret of my marks all the other children I control will be discovered as well. It’s a good thing the memories of children are so easy to contain.” 

He bent forward again, his hands glowing white, and Marinette struggled hard feeling the wall starting to form in her mind as he made contact. Whiteness surrounded her and, furiously, Marinette screamed.


	5. Chapter 5

“No… NO!” Marinette gasped, coming awake with a start and nearly throwing Adrien off the bed as she jerked upright. “Adrien?!” Marinette cried, hearing him yowl, one hand snapping out to call light into her lamp.   
The light flashed on, revealing Adrien scrambling towards her, then the bulb blew as she filled it with far too much power. 

“Calm down!” Adrien hummed, his warm furry body slamming against her. Instantly, Marinette's fingers curled into his fur and he began to purr as Marinette took several deep breaths, trying to recover from the memory-dream she’d just had, and the odd surging sensation of her magic. The mark on her arm burned and Marinette felt her heart race in time with the throbbing burn. 

“Marinette, calm down! It’s ok, I’m here!” Adrien purred, growing so that he was large enough to go face to face with her. “What’s wrong? Why are you about to panic?”  
Blinking, Marinette pulled Adrien against her, burying her face into his fur. “I-I had a dream, but I don’t think it was a dream. We were kids, and I found you in the Familiar world, and we said we would always be together but then Hawkmoth attacked and I never did know if you got away safely and, oh, Adrien….” Marinette sobbed, her heart still going a mile a minute.

Adrien had tensed when Marinette had pulled him against her, he did have some wicked claws in this form and he hadn’t wanted to accidently prick her. Now though, with what she had said Adrien had to wonder. “So, you finally remember the day we met and became partners. Do you remember what happened that day, before Plagg showed up and yelled at us?”

Marinette pulled back, looking over Adrien's larger panther face. She blinked a few times, clearly trying to remember something since he had confirmed it hadn’t been a dream, and then she gasped. “Y-you… you are a Gremalkin… you can become a human!” 

With a grin that showed off his fangs, Adrien's panther form dissolved in a multitude of sparks, leaving a very handsome boy half crouched before her. Thankfully, this time, he did have clothes on but Marinette still gasped, one hand rising, and then before Adrien could say a word, she passed out once more. 

It was probably one of the most stressful mornings Marinette had ever had, and she was still tired from the day before, since she hadn’t slept well. Both Tiki and Plagg had come to her after she had passed out, since Adrien had panicked when he couldn’t wake Marinette back up. They had pulled her from her unconscious state at Adrien’s request only because Marinette had revealed that she had recovered her memories. Marinette had woken up in Adrien's arms, finding both Plagg and Tiki had gone fully human, revealing that they had been guarding her and Adrien since the day Marinette fought Hawkmoth. Plagg had felt terrible about not making it to Marinette’s side in time to prevent her from being marked, and Marinette had given the grumpy man a hug, able to feel his regret like a stabbing pain in her heart. Adrien had been remorseful as well, since he hadn’t been able to protect her, and Marinette had simply hugged him to her saying that as a kid it had been her job to protect him. Since they were older now and Adrien's powers had fully matured, he could now protect her, since the mark on her arm was still active and blocking most of her magic. 

The mark on her arm was something Plagg and Tiki had fully explained, since she hadn’t been awake when they placed the secondary binding on the mark. Because Hawkmoth had originally calibrated the binding/siphoning spell for Alya, he hadn’t accounted for the difference in magic in Marinette. When he decided to place the spell on her instead Marinette had already used up a majority of her magic making her appear weaker than she really was. Due to that weakness, Hawkmoth’s spell, coupled with Tiki’s, had forced any excess magic of Marinette to go to Adrien, instead of siphoning it off like it was supposed to. Adrien had then used their partnered bond to return her magic to her a little at a time creating a loophole around Hawkmoth’s binding. It allowed Marinette's magic to mature properly, even though it kept her magic in a seemingly apparent weak state, though she could power spells and manipulate magic that she shouldn’t have been capable of otherwise. After hearing all this, Marinette had stared at her arm where the butterfly sat, before asking if Plagg could remove the mark like he had for Alya. Plagg had shaken his head, and Tiki had explained, before Marinette or Adrien had a chance to demand why. 

“The last of the mark’s anchors will be completely destroyed in the next few days, especially since Adrien is now at your side. Your magic is already returning to normal Marinette, and if we simply destroy the mark now, without letting your body get used to the influx, it will cause your magic to go out of control. I know you don’t want that, which is why the mark needs to remain in place for at least a few more days. The moment you summoned Adrien, the mark was sealed into an inactive state which means Hawkmoth can no longer steal your magic. However this also means he will probably become curious and might attack you two, in an attempt to reactivate the mark. You must stay extra vigilant these next few days, and be wary of strangers in case Hawkmoth tries to pull something,” Tiki had said, leading Marinette to have one of the most stressful mornings she’d ever had. 

Tiki and Plagg had returned to the Familiar world soon after, as they were on the trail of some magic spell they needed. They hadn’t explained themselves, but they promised that they would be in touch if the kids needed them, and that they would be back to fully remove the mark on Marinette's arm at the end of the week. Adrien was not pleased with the arrangement and secretly he promised Marinette that he could and would remove the mark if necessary. Marinette had nodded, wanting the mark gone, but also feeling nervous about it since she could already feel the difference in her power. Since she had been pulled awake Marinette still felt tired, but it was a ‘haven’t-had-enough-sleep’ kind of tired rather than a magically drained kind of tired. Then she had blown the other lightbulb in her room when she let too much of magic go in it. In the end, she used a light ball spell that she hadn’t been able to do in years, just so that she could see to clean up the glass. The spell had come easily to her and Adrien had remained in his human form, batting at the light spell when it drifted too close. 

“So, what do we want to do?” Marinette asked, as she finished screwing in a new bulb.

Adrien shrugged, batting at the ball of light and making it change colors as he wrapped a secondary spell around it. “I really don’t know, Marinette. All I’ve wanted since being separated is to be at your side again. I missed you even, though I knew you were ok, because of our bond.”

Dumping the glass in the trash Marinette moved to sit beside Adrien on her chase. He leaned against her and Marinette sighed, a feeling of contentment rising within her. She hadn’t known what she was missing all these years, and now that Adrien was at her side and her memories had been restored Marinette realized exactly what had been missing. 

“You know… if Hawkmoth hadn’t interfered I wonder how my parents would have reacted to me bringing home a familiar at 8 years old,” Marinette wondered with a yawn, as Adrien wrapped his arms around her.

Adrien chuckled. “Your parents are really nice. They probably would have just rolled with it and pretended I was a pet until you could reveal me properly.” 

He was probably right, Marinette realized, her eyes slowly closing on their own, her parents probably would have simply thought of Adrien as a son. Matter of fact they probably would now since Marinette really should tell them about his true lineage. 

Her thoughts were interrupted as Adrien suddenly hissed, “Someone’s coming” and poofed back into his cat form, making Marinette nearly topple over on him. 

A moment later her trap door burst open as Alya called out, “Marinette, it’s time to wake up, girl! Don’t tell me you forgot to set an alarm again!” 

Marinette groaned, and slumped fully onto her chase, after allowing Adrien to jump down so he could go say hi to Nino. “I didn’t sleep well at all, Alya. Do we really have to go to school today?” 

“Sorry, girl, but yeah, we do. Good news is we only have tomorrow left, then the rest of the week is all summonings. Besides, didn’t you promise Nathaniel that you would come to his summoning?” Alya asked. 

Marinette sat up with a sigh. “Yeah, I did. I’m coming alright, just let me grab some clothes.” 

She stood up and moved towards her dresser her light ball following making Alya gasp. “Girl! Did you do a light spell?” 

Marinette blinked at her friend then realized why Alya was so shocked. Usually Marinette couldn’t start a light spell without help, although she could power one indefinitely once someone got it going. 

“Oh… yeah, Adrien helped me. Turns out my magic is stronger than I thought… I just, um, have a minor mental block thing going on… I guess,” Marinette stuttered, since she wasn’t sure how she was going to explain her magic growing in strength by leaps and bounds. 

Instead of making a huge fuss like Marinette had expected, Alya simply nodded, thoughtfully. “Well that makes sense. I mean getting a familiar usually strengthens a person’s magic anyways.”

“Ah, yeah,” Marinette murmured, rushing to grab some clothes and darting to the bathroom to change. 

They left for school together, with Adrien opting to ride in Marinette's hood while partially draped over her shoulder, and more than once Marinette saw people glancing at her in curiosity. Really, she knew why, since cats -especially black cats- were not seen often but, still, you would think that people would be a little less conspicuous. 

“Think I should go invisible for a bit?” Adrien asked mentally, as Alya demanded what a passerby was looking at. 

”No, you are my partner. They can just get used to seeing you around,” Marinette answered, then chuckled suddenly. “One day you should come with me in your human Chat form. People will really stare then.” 

Adrien gave a mert of laughter at that thought, making Alya glance at the two of them, even as Marinette scratched behind Adrien's ears. 

“You are taking the attention surprisingly well,” Alya said suspiciously, as they finally arrived at school. 

Marinette shrugged, in truth she hadn’t really thought much about how other people would feel about Adrien. Regaining her memories and discovering her real magical potential was returning had made Marinette realize that there were far bigger things afoot than simply worrying about how other people saw her. The nervous itch of feeling people’s eyes on her was still there, and yes it was still stressing her out, but having Adrien against her back, letting off a soft purr, made her able to take it in stride. 

“A black cat isn’t super controversial or anything Alya. It’s just a bit rare. I mean your Nino should have caused more of a stir, since he was literally on fire before you put the collar on him. I’ll bet everyone will forget he is even here by second period,” Marinette stated as they walked to class. 

Much to her annoyance, everyone hadn’t forgotten that Adrien was with her, even though he remained at her side or in her hood the whole half day of classes. When the final bell rang for the day at noon Marinette slumped, even as Adrien wiggled free from her hood and climbed out on the desk. He stretched and padded to the edge, ready to jump down, when he saw the goo spell flashing towards them. His aura flared as he intercepted the spell, vaporizing it the moment it tried to touch him. Marinette's head shot up as Adrien turned and hissed at Chloe who looked utterly shocked. 

“What the hell, Chloe?!” Marinette demanded, one hand pressing against Adrien's back to keep him from leaping to the floor before going after Chloe.

The whole classroom had frozen and Adrien mentally hissed, “I should have batted the spell back at her. If she does that again, I’ll send an extra surprise with it.” 

“As long as the surprise doesn’t hurt her, it was just a goo spell,” Marinette replied the same way, even as she demanded out loud. “Why did you just attack Adrien? Are you stupid or something?”

Chloe went from shocked to indignant in seconds. “It was just a joke, Maritrash. What kind of freaky thing did you summon, anyways? Familiars can’t use magic like that.” 

“Oops… forgot about that…” Adrien grumbled, as his lips lifted from his fangs in a loud hiss directed towards Chloe. Nino wiggled out from under the table at the sound of Adrien's hiss, letting a growl out as he too faced Chloe. 

“Nino…” Alya called softly, the warning in her tone making the dog let out a small grumble. 

“That was a protection spell Marinette and I set up on him yesterday, since we figured it wouldn’t be long before you decided to try a sneak attack. It’s nice to know you always live up to our expectations of you,” Alya snarked, coming to stand beside Marinette who still looked furious. The spell was a lie, but Alya didn’t mind lying for Marinette's sake. She would just grill Marinette later over what that darkness had been around Adrien.

Chloe flipped her hair with a snort. “Of course Maritrash had to go to you for help. I should have known her familiar would be as useless as she is.”  
All at once Marinette decided she’d had enough. She was still tired from lack of deep sleep, stressed out from what she had learned, and she could literally feel her magic starting to surge, since the mark on her arm was no longer active. 

“At least I have a familiar, Chloe. You on the other hand don’t yet, and I’m sure that when you do finally summon all you will be able to handle is a mud slime. You seem to really like those goo spells so, truly, I think it will be a perfect fit,” Marinette snapped, as Adrien jumped down to the ground to press against her ankles. 

The classroom went silent for a total for two seconds before Chloe shrieked, “How dare you!” While simultaneously launching a kind of bladed wind spell at Marinette. 

Any other time Chloe had ever launched a spell at Marinette, Alya usually had to step in or Marinette had to dodge. This time Marinette could literally see the spell light up the air and she could feel the holes in the spell where Chloe had forgotten a piece or was simply forcing the spell to happen. It didn’t take much effort at all to reach out with Adrien's magic and snap the spell off, before any real wind could even stir. A sound like crashing glass echoed through the room, and Adrien grew to his panther size, snarling heavily as Chloe stumbled backwards from the backlash of her spell shattering. 

“W-what did you just do?!” Chloe screeched, as Sabrina grabbed her. 

Marinette shrugged, rubbing Adrien behind the ears, even as the rest of her classmates edged back from the suddenly very large cat and the battle that seemed to be brewing right in front of them. “Your spell broke, clearly you need to go back to casting 101. Come on, Alya, the summonings should be starting soon and I want a good seat.”

Grabbing her bag, Marinette moved for the back doors, a peripheral shield spell on the tip of her tongue in case Chloe decided to try anything further. Alya whooped with laughter as she darted after Marinette and with a final sniff of disdain towards Chloe, Nino followed as well. They made it all the way to the door, and were halfway out of it, when Chloe finally seemed to get some semblance of thoughts in her head. 

“You just wait until I summon a familiar, Marinette Dupain-Cheng! I’ll show you then how stupid that ugly cat of yours is!” Chloe squalled. 

Marinette sighed, letting the door snick shut behind them, and continued down the now semi crowded hall. Surprisingly, Adrien did not retreat into his smaller form choosing to stay quite large and fearsome looking, which actually gave Alya and her some breathing room. 

“She is probably going to demand a familiar battle as soon as she summons something,” Alya observed, grinning at Marinette who seemed far more confident and calmer than normal. 

“We can handle her,” Marinette answered, her hand lightly resting on Adrien's back. 

That had not been what Alya was expecting, but hearing the confidence behind those words Alya chuckled, throwing her arms around her best friend. “Atta girl! She crowed, making Marinette smile and Adrien chuff with amusement. Nino whined, feeling left out, and Alya petted him for a few seconds while she waited for Marinette to toss her stuff in her locker. The four of them made their way to the arena and Adrien did finally shrink down, since he wanted a good view of the summonings. He wasn’t going to switch into his human form so he needed to be small enough to sit on Marinette's shoulder. 

“Would you be upset if I switched into human form?” Adrien asked curiously, as he hopped up on the back of Marinette’s chair. 

“Um, no, but it might cause a few inquiries, since I will no longer have a familiar at my side. Plus, how will you explain yourself to Alya? She will be awfully suspicious if you show up out of nowhere and introduce yourself as Adrien,” Marinette replied, as she took a seat in one of the chairs closest to the aisle. 

Adrien thought on that for a few minutes, since he wanted to one day walk around with Marinette in his human form. Once Marinette had fully reclaimed and mastered her power, Adrien knew they could craft an illusion spell so that it would seem like he was hanging out on her shoulder when he was in human form. Alya wouldn’t be fooled for very long however, so at some point he would have to reveal himself to her. Nino whined at him from the floor, breaking Adrien from his thoughts, and   
Adrien sighed. “Can you ask Alya to give Nino a seat? He wants to watch as well, but he doesn’t feel like talking.” 

Marinette twitched, her eyes flickering to Adrien then Nino in surprise, before passing along the message by saying, “Alya, does Nino maybe want to watch? He can take the chair on your other side.” 

Alya blinked at her before glancing down at Nino. A message or thought or something seemed to pass between them and Alya sighed. “I really wish you would just break down and talk to me Nino. Hop up over here if you want to watch.” 

She pulled the seat down next to her and Nino gave a small woof before jumping into the chair and turning to face the front. He then leaned over the arm rest, so that his head was pressed against her arm for a few seconds, making Alya smile and scratch at his head. 

“He doesn’t talk to you?” Marinette asked, feeling rather surprised, since the two of them seemed to communicate like she and Adrien did. 

Alya shrugged. “Yes and no, it’s sorta complicated and I think it will get better as our bond strengthens. Don’t you have trouble communicating with Adrien?” 

Marinette opened her mouth, then paused, as Adrien’s back claws prickled at her as he slithered down off her shoulder into her lap, a slight feeling of panic drifting off him. “Ah, well, he is just a cat, Alya. We are working things out.” 

Alya glanced up at her, confusion clear on her face, but she didn’t get a chance to ask any further questions since one of the Administrators called for silence.   
Marinette barely paid any attention, her thoughts turning inward as she mentally called, “What’s wrong?”

“I can sense Hawkmoth’s magic,” Adrien replied, his eyes narrowing in concentration. “I don’t know if it’s just a spell, like a tracker or a minion, or if he is here in person, but either way we should really leave.” 

Marinette’s hands tightened in Adrien's fur even as she resisted the urge to look around them. She did activate her magical sight as she managed, “We can’t.” Adrien glanced up at her and Marinette could sense the question even before he formed the thoughts. “It’s super rude to leave while someone is summoning and Nathaniel is the one summoning. He will definitely see me if I leave now and it might affect his chances. Besides, what do I tell Alya so she doesn’t follow us?” 

Adrien huffed, his tail twitching in agitation, and Marinette stroked a hand down his back in a soothing gesture. He was quiet as Nathaniel made it into the circle, the lines blazing briefly as they locked him in his chance. Marinette watched as he lifted what looked like a paint brush into the air and suddenly it grew until it was the size of a staff. He then began painting in long strokes in the air before him, and inky designs shimmered to life in the larger circle as he drew. Adrien patted Marinette with his paw reclaiming her attention at once. 

“I’m going to use an invisibility spell and illusion spell so Alya doesn’t realize I’m gone. I’m going to go check out an escape route that will take us nowhere near Hawkmoth,” Adrien said 

“Be careful,” Marinette replied, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to talk him out of doing what he wished to do. 

Adrien's outline shimmered oddly and since her magical vision was active she saw him slip off her lap and under the seats, his body blending with the darkness so well Marinette wasn’t sure he would need the invisibility spells. 

“Marinette, you ok?” Alya whispered, as Nino gave a small whimper, clearly seeing Adrien slip past. 

Adrien paused for a second and Nino’s ears jutted forward, his posture going stiff, before Alya reached over to pat him. Glancing between her best friend and familiar, Alya frowned. “What is wrong with you two?”

Marinette forced herself to relax as Nathaniel finished his circle and paused to glance around the stadium. Marinette smiled raising a hand in a half wave as his eyes met hers and Nathaniel seemed to blush before rapidly returning to his circle. Alya, for her part, jabbed a finger into Marinette’s side, making her jump slightly. 

“What?” Marinette demanded, flinching as Nathaniel activated his circle and the resulting magical flash forced her to deactivate her magical sight or become half blinded. 

“You keep twitching and you just feel, I don’t know, overly tense? Then Nino suddenly started, acting the same way, and you didn’t answer when I asked what was wrong so… what the heck?” Alya groused, her voiced barely above a whisper. 

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Marinette patted Alya on the hand. “I’m ok and so is Nino, I suspect. I had my magical vision active and Nathaniel is really strong. The flash both times made me twitchy.” 

Alya’s lips turned down into a pout, but before she could voice any counter arguments Marinette pointed towards the summoning circle where the floor was glowing an indigo blue mixed with emerald green. Lines swirled through the solid base and the color condensed into the center where the lines pulsed with light. Slowly it rose from the floor in an odd oblong shape and Nathaniel took a step over the lines into the main circle.

“What in the heck did he summon?” Alya asked cocking her head to the side “You don’t think he summoned a slime do you?”

Marinette shook her head. “I don’t think so Alya, it almost looks like an egg or something.”

Nathaniel paused several feet from the egg-like shape, his staff sized paint brush just stroking the ground. There didn’t appear to be anything happening until Marinette activated her magical vision and saw that the egg was sending out tendrils to wrap around Nathaniel and the paint brush he held. People in the stands shifted, starting to become uneasy with the lack of action, until Nathaniel stroked the brush across the ground making a dark line. Color shifted on the egg’s surface, and a second line appeared next to his and suddenly Nathaniel smiled. He began to move in earnest, swirling the brush along beside him as he swiftly sketched out a moving picture across the floor. People gasped at the picture coming to life in the circle and Marinette could only smile as Alya grabbed her hand, squeezing it tight.

“Girl, that’s amazing!” Alya gasped and they both looked down at the picture of a serene pond with lily pads and swaying willows. Color filled the floor as the egg seemed to begin to dance, cracks making the surface appear jagged. Ripples swirled across the sketch centering on the egg, which suddenly burst, revealing a grey bird about the size of a chicken that landed on the floor in the center of the drawing.

“I think it’s a phoenix species,” Marinette gasped, watching as the bird swept its long tail across the floor, absorbing the magic of the drawing and reducing it to grey stone again.

Nathaniel had gone still at the hatching of the egg and the bird shook its feathers out, fanning its tail like a peacock would. As the tail fanned, each feather changed to a different color until its tail was a rainbow that swayed in a nonexistent wind. The biggest smile lit up Nathaniel’s face and he turned his attention to the floor as the bird’s tail feather pattern began to change. He redrew the pond scene again but this time the colors were all wrong for their world. Animals made an appearance, looking nothing like anything alive in their world and Alya grabbed Marinette's hand after a moment, making her jump.

“He’s drawing the familiar world!” she hissed, and Marinette nodded having realized that the moment the colors for the grass came out a blue green color.

“Phoenix species are so choosy. This one really seems to like him though,” Adrien murmured in her mind, and a few moments later she felt him slip onto her lap blending in with his illusion, before casting it aside.

“So it is a Phoenix,” Marinette replied, stroking a hand down his back. “Do we need to leave?”

“Once he is done we probably should. Hawkmoth hasn’t noticed us yet, but I know of somewhere safe we can go so you can practice your magic without worries,” Adrien said, butting his head into Marinette's hand.

The floor painting was finished and the Phoenix had turned entirely gray again, its tail feathers drawn into a tight bunch laying on the floor. It peered at the drawing then at Nathaniel, who looked incredibly nervous, before slowly strutting towards the center of the circle. There it gave a soft trill, spreading its wings and tail feathers once more as the painting around it lifted off the floor along with the summoning lines. The shapes dissolved into a riot of color and the whole mess flowed into the bird’s feathers. For a long moment the bird looked like a rainbow come to life before the brighter colors faded leaving blues greens and odd bits of purple for eye spots. The magic settled and Nathaniel moved to the bird’s side, only to yelp as it leaped into the air so it could land on his shoulder. 

“Did it get smaller?” Alya asked as Marinette stood, letting Adrien dart to the ground. People around her were standing and clapping as well since the summoning had been a beautiful display of skill.

“I think so. I’m going to go congratulate Nathaniel and head home, ok? I’m still sorta tired,” Marinette answered.

“Alright, girl. I’ll give you a blow by blow for the others later. Get some rest!” Alya chuckled, rubbing a hand over Nino’s head when he whined.

Marinette nodded and hunching a little she moved up the aisle past people to get to the staircase. If anyone had been watching for her they wouldn’t notice her gone from her seat until everyone sat back down. Moving swiftly and apologizing to people as she past them Marinette followed Adrien as he slipped down into the bowels of the arena. This time she activated her magical sight and as she walked she noticed the odd markings down the walls. She also noticed a presence that shimmered just behind her.

“Is that?” Marinette started to ask, then realized that Adrien had vanished from view.

“Yes, something is following you. Keep moving until you find Nathaniel, I’ll be able to destroy the tracker once the magic changes again,” Adrien answered, and Marinette felt a trickle of relief from being able to hear his voice.

“When the magic changes?” Marinette asked curiously.

“You will see in just a minute,” Adrien replied cryptically.

Marinette wanted to keep asking questions but a moment later the scrolling in the walls seemed to blaze to life, illuminating the odd smudge as a monster like apparition. Marinette slapped a hand over her mouth to keep from yelling and Adrien came out of nowhere in his Halfling form, slashing down with his claws and shredding the thing out of existence. The light faded and the apparition went with it as Adrien looked up at Marinette.

“Hi?” Adrien called, hesitantly holding up a clawed hand.

“Hi… I totally forgot you had a Halfling form…” Marinette breathed, moving closer to look him over.

Like this Adrien looked like a completely different person. His hair was still blond and his eyes were still green, but other than that and his human shape he was impossible to mistake as a normal human. Black leather encased his entire form, while cat ears and a tail twitched, showcasing his nervousness. His claws were sharp and a mask covered his eyes, making them seem greener than normal. To Marinette's vision magic ebbed and flowed around him in this form, highlighting the fact that even though he looked like it, Adrien wasn’t quite human.

“You look like a knight or something out of a fairy tale like this,” Marinette finally decided, making him laugh and shift back into his normal cat form.

“That would make you my princess then, right?” Adrien laughed, leaping to her shoulder. “Don’t worry, your knight has vanquished the nasty tracker, and because of the odd magic fluctuations down here it shouldn’t alert Hawkmoth for a bit.”

Marinette rolled her eyes, deciding to forgo the princess comment as she put up a hand to help stabilize Adrien as he settled into her hood. “That’s good to know, Adrien. Do each of your forms have a title?”

Adrien yawned stretching out a bit across her shoulder. “I suppose you should just call me Chat Noir in the Halfling form since I only use that form to fight in. If anyone were to see me fighting in that form I don’t think we want it being tied to you or me, since we are running under the radar for now.”

“Ok, but Chat Noir is not very creative,” Marinette commented, making Adrien snicker.

“Yeah, Plagg came up with that one. He said it’s better to keep it simple, so unless you have any better ideas?”

Marinette frowned, but before she could say anything more a loud trill echoed down the hall they were in, and turning the corner Marinette nearly ran into Nathaniel.

“Oh! Hi Nathaniel! Great job!” Marinette called, stumbling back, causing Adrien to dig in his claws to hold on.

“Ma-Marinette! You ca-came!” Nathaniel stuttered.

Marinette smiled warmly at him. “Of course I came! Now that I know you have a bird like familiar I’ll make you a bird hat so you two can match!”

Nathaniel blushed, kicking at the ground. “Y-you don’t have to…” In the next second he yelped as his familiar pecked at his ear. “Sorry… she is hungry I think.”

Marinette nodded, feeling Adrien chuckle against her. “Go feed her then. We can catch up later! Great job with the paintings, everyone was really impressed.”

Nathaniel nodded again, blocking his familiar from pecking him and moved past Marinette with a shy wave. The moment the two turned the corner Adrien hopped down and grew to the size of an extremely large panther.

“Hop on Marinette,” Adrien called, and Marinette gazed at him in shock.   
“Hop on?”

Adrien nodded. “This will only work if I am carrying you, although since we are connected you might be able to do it on your own someday.”

“Do what exactly?” Marinette hissed, even as she climbed up onto Adrien's back.

“Go to the familiar world. Now hold on,” Adrien instructed, since he could hear people heading towards them. 

Nervousness shot through Marinette as Adrien began to move and she snatched at his fur, holding on tight. “Wait! What about the wards?”

“Not a problem,” Adrien replied as he leaped at the wall, the two of them vanishing from view a second before three people turned the corner.

Marinette clung to Adrien's back, eyes screwed shut, until he stopped moving. Slowly, Marinette opened her eyes and gasped. They were in a field of green-blue grass with reddish orange trees littering the background. The spot was the same one as her dream and the same spot Adrien had appeared in when she summoned him.

“How is this possible?” Marinette gasped, sliding down off Adrien's back.

“There are a few species that can cross freely between the worlds. Grimalkins are one of them, and when we have been bonded to someone for an extended amount of time we can usually bring them with us when we cross back and forth,” Adrien answered, and changed to his human form in a flash of green light.

“Oh… but why did you bring me here? I know you said it was so I could practice my magic, but why the familiar world,” Marinette queried, even as she tried to absorb all the sights around her.

Adrien grinned. “Well, to be honest, I wanted to show you where I grew up, but this world is safe from Hawkmoth and I know a shielded place where you won’t have to worry about your magic getting out of control. It’s where I practiced, so I know it’s safe to use at any time. I’ll take us home whenever you are ready.”

Marinette hugged Adrien, pulling him close to her and grinning herself when a purr filled the air between them. “Thank you, Adrien. I was wondering how I would be able to find my limits now that my magic is getting stronger, so this will help so much.”

Adrien returned the hug, happy that she was happy. “Always, Marinette, you are my partner. It’s my job to take care of you.”

Marinette finally pulled away, a blush highlighting her cheekbones that Adrien pretended not to see as he took her hand.

“Come on, I’ll show you the way, unless you want to ride on my back in panther form?”

That idea had Marinette instantly intrigued but she wanted to see everything and she knew it would take all of her concentration to ride so she shook her head. “That sounds like fun, but I want to look around as we walk, so maybe on the way back. We do have to come to this spot again to get back home, right?”

“Unless we want to end up back in the summoning area, no. Usually a single spot is tied to its counter location when you are walking between worlds. Summoning changes locations because there is a homing like spell built into the summoning circle’s lines, and it aims for a specific being that fulfills the homing spell. When your spell got messed up as a kid the magic tangled with the summoning magic and it dumped you here. At least that’s how Plagg explained it to me. I don’t know if he’s right or just made something up to get me to quit asking,” Adrien muttered, leading Marinette through the trees.

Marinette giggled, her hand tightening around his, and Adrien smiled before starting to point out all the interesting things the forest had to offer. Eventually, they made it to the circle and Marinette was happy to let Adrien remain outside while she tried several spells that she hadn’t been able to do in years. Slowly she worked her way up through spells that she had needed Alya to help set up, and was overjoyed to find that each spell was easy and worked seamlessly. It was almost instinctual the way her magic just seemed to flow into position and she was giddy with success when Adrien stepped into the circle. By that time Marinette was fairly confident that she could keep her magic under control, but Adrien threw her for a loop when he demanded that she attack him. After refusing, Adrien explained that she needed to work on battle spells since, if Hawkmoth really decided to come after her, she would have to know how to use her power offensively and not just for defense. Marinette had understood and showed Adrien all the spells she knew for attacks which were actually quite a lot. Adrien was impressed, and by the time they were finished Marinette was so exhausted Adrien had to carry her. At some point in the journey home Marinette fell asleep, leaving Adrien to sneak them into her room. Not wanting anyone to worry he texted both her parents and Alya so that they knew she was in her room safe and simply sleeping. Adrien smiled at Marinette, who was curled into a ball beneath the covers knowing that it was going to be a fun and interesting week.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which things are wrapped up.

The next few days followed the same schedule except, while Alya went to the summonings, Marinette slipped off to the Familiar world with Adrien to practice her magic. Alya had been confused as to why Marinette hadn’t wanted to go, but Marinette had cited her changing magic, nervousness about being around lots of people, plus having a black cat familiar, and Alya had rather grudgingly let it go. Alya still wanted to give her the blow by blow accounts of all the summonings though, and Marinette had agreed to meeting up in the evening to hang out and girl talk. Alya had noticed the energy difference in Marinette since she was getting stronger each day and Marinette had told her that by the end of the week that she should be in total control again. Alya was ecstatic, but she demanded that Marinette still go to Chloe’s summoning at the very end of the week. Not seeing anything wrong with that Marinette had agreed, successfully getting Alya off her back.   
For now she was still practicing battle magic with Adrien, which was not only fun, but it was also good for learning control over multiple spells at once. Up until this point, Marinette had rarely been able to support more than two extremely small spells at once. Adrien had her supporting four plus a shield, which exhausted her far faster than she expected and made the mark on her arm burn. 

Stepping out of the shielded area, Marinette dropped to the ground and drank some water. “I don’t think it’s possible to do what you are asking, Adrien.”

“Believe me it is,” Adrien answered, slipping into his human form and taking a sip of water from his own bottle. “Once we get that mark off your arm your magic will be completely untethered and you will find this to be a walk in the park.”

Marinette hummed in disbelief, but it was nice that Adrien had so much faith in her. Pushing sweat soaked bangs out of her face Marinette lifted up her phone and eyed the screen. It was starting to get late and using her magic she checked for messages. There were about 30 messages from Alya demanding to know where in the heck she was.

“Crap, Adrien, we need to go,” Marinette called, standing and calling all her stuff back together in the small bag she carried to the familiar world. 

Hearing the annoyance in her tone, Adrien simply switched into his panther form, growing large enough so that she could ride on his back. “What’s wrong?” 

Marinette scrambled up and held on as Adrien took off through the trees. It had only been a few days, but Marinette felt completely at home riding on Adrien's back through the forest now, and she was able to answer since she no longer had to concentrate to just hold on.   
“Alya got bored with the last summonings today and she came searching for us. Mom thought I was with her and now Alya is very curious as to where we are. She tried to use a tracker spell and it keeps bouncing back since we are not in that world. Also Nino slipped and said something about being in his home and she is about three seconds from doing something really rash.”

“Right… of course she is,” Adrien grumbled and doubled his speed.  
They arrived at their normal entry point and Adrien darted through allowing them to come out in the hidden area that Marinette and Alya had used as children. 

“What the hell?” A voice screeched, and the two of them turned to find a pale faced Alya and a guilty looking Nino standing in the alley’s entrance.

“Oh crap…” Marinette whimpered, before throwing herself off of Adrien's back. Adrien shrank rapidly and spat a hiss at Nino who cringed, tail curling up under his body with a whine. Alya, on the other hand, seemed stuck and Marinette approached her the same way she would approach a dangerous, injured animal. “Alya, its ok…”

“Ok?! OK?! Oh my gods girl, you just came riding a giant freakin’ panther out of thin air! What part of this is ok?!” Alya shrieked. “This is amazing!!! Is this why you didn’t want to come to the summonings?!”

Marinette's hands dropped in shock and Adrien leaped to her shoulder grumbling, “Well at least she isn’t mad.”

“And he talks?!” Alya squealed. “Ok, now I’m mad! What the hell, girl?!” 

“Adrien…” Marinette whined, and he butted his head against her cheek in consolation. 

“She isn’t going to believe anything you try and concoct on the spot so we might as well come clean,” Adrien answered, then jumped off her shoulder switching into his human form mid leap. Alya gaped at him, one hand rising, and before she could say a word she simply passed out, right on top of Nino.

Marinette had freaked when Alya had passed out and it had taken both Adrien and Nino to calm her down. Adrien found out from Nino that Alya had been up for the past day and a half with no sleep due to a delayed energy overload from getting him as a familiar, and then she had worn herself out further by casting the tracking spells that kept bouncing back on her. Nino expected her to sleep the whole night through and Marinette had taken her back to her house after calling both of their parents to warn them what happened. Alya’s parents let her stay over at Marinette's, since she was already there, and Marinette went to bed early, knowing that Alya would probably wake up super early wanting to know every detail of what was going on.

The next morning, Marinette woke to a prodding finger and found Alya wide awake and bursting with curiosity. With a groan Marinette woke up Adrien and together Marinette explained everything that had happened, although she felt bad when she explained what had happened with Hawkmoth when they were children. Alya had been furious, although not at Marinette, and she made Marinette promise not to leave her out of the loop any longer. With a sigh Marinette promised and Alya decided breakfast was in order. Since it was officially the weekend, and summonings didn’t start until noon, they had some time to kill before they needed to be at the arena to find seats. Alya dragged Marinette back to their hidden alley and demanded to see some of Marinette's spell casting and Adrien's Halfling form. Both Marinette and Adrien obliged, until they had to get to the arena to find seats for the last of the summonings.

“Marinette, I think you have gone from one of the weakest casters in the class to the strongest,” Alya murmured, as they made their way to the arena to find seats.

“I hope not,” Marinette sighed. “I have no desire to be watched and prodded magically all the time. I still remember them doing it as a kid and I hated it then too. Plus they expect so much more out of you and I just really want to be a stitch witch. I don’t want to have to do crazy complex spells for the rest of my life.”

Alya patted Marinette's arm in sympathy. “Too bad, girl. They are probably going to go a little nuts, since your magic went from non-existent to super powered in just a week. No one will believe that he’s just a cat either.”

Marinette stiffened realizing her friend was right, but before she could ask what Alya thought she should do they got swept up into the crowd heading into the arena.

“Don’t worry too much, Marinette. I can hide your magic the same way I can hide what I am. Their test will show nothing but what we want them to see. However you will have to decide just how much power you want them to know about initially. You can always release more magic as you get older since growth is still expected,” Adrien murmured mentally, since there were too many people around to talk normally.

Marinette scratched at his ears, the relief already trickling through her. “Thank you, Adrien. I’m so glad you are here with me.”

Adrien purred, rubbing his face against hers, making her giggle as they found seats that were surprisingly close to the very front.

“Score! Lucky us, huh, Marinette?” Alya crowed, sliding into one seat and Nino hopped up in the one to her other side.

Marinette sat down in the final open seat at the end of the aisle, humming in agreement, as Adrien hopped down to go wander. Surprisingly, he had no interest in watching Chloe fail and Marinette simply requested that he cloak himself so people wouldn’t bother him. The stands around them were packed with people and Marinette thanked every one of her lucky stars that she hadn’t summoned today.

“I would have fainted if I’d had to summon today,” Marinette whispered, feeling her mouth dry up at the thought.

Alya laughed. “Girl, if you had to summon you today we probably would have had to hog tie you just to get you in the circle!”

The two of them laughed, coming up with even crazier stories and ideas of why the last day to summon was the worst until finally the large clock chimed signifying the start of the summonings. The stands quieted down and a short bugle played before they announced Chloe’s name. Slowly she strutted out in a fancy dress that was totally inappropriate for a summoning and would have been more at home in a ballroom.

“Is she allowed to wear that?” Alya asked, as a low buzz of conversation filled the air.

There was no uniform that one had to summon in, although most people summoned in the most comfortable clothes that they had. No one summoned in anything fancy since there was a high chance you would have to fight whatever you summoned. Chloe’s choice of clothing wasn’t just impractical it was also bordering on the line of illegal. Marinette winced as she eyed the dress, her magical vision active.

“That dress is absolutely layered with magical energy, and not all of it is hers. I think that’s the only way she is going to be able to summon.”

“That’s cheating!” Alya hissed, as Chloe stepped over the magical lines in the ring.

For once the lines didn’t flash in her magical vision and Marinette frowned patting at Alya’s hand. “Did you see the lines flash?”

Alya huffed. “No, and I’ve never seen them flash. Aren’t you a little pissed that she is getting away with cheating?”

Marinette shrugged, watching Chloe’s every move. “Chloe has always cheated and taken advantage of anyone she can. Why should this be any different?”

But something was different. Marinette could feel it in her bones that something wasn’t right below her. Chloe was using air magic to sketch out her lines and from what Marinette could tell she was doing it right but there was something else that wasn’t quite right below her power.

“Alya, I think something is wrong,” Marinette said softly, starting to stand as Chloe finished the last line and sent what was left of her power out.

The circle blazed in Marinette vision but she couldn’t turn away, since suddenly she could see a secondary circle. One that hadn’t been there before in any other summonings, and one that Marinette didn’t recognize. As the secondary lines blazed it sucked the power out of Chloe’s spell, reminding Marinette of what Hawkmoth had done to her for years.

Suddenly Adrien's weight hit her shoulder. “Marinette, we need to get out of here!”

“What? Why?” Marinette asked, as Nino suddenly snarled and Alya looked at them in confusion.

“The wards in place around the arena are gone and someone’s tampered with the circle!” Adrien hissed, as a loud boom echoed, making all humans cover their ears.

Chloe dropped to her knees, all the magic that she had carried on her dress gone, as smoke began to rise from the center of the circle. Alarm whispered through the stands as the smoke didn’t halt at the assigned warded area and kept climbing all the way to the roof.

“Did she fail?” Alya whispered, as people shifted around them uneasily.

Usually if a summoning failed the lines would simply fall apart. There was no light show and certainly no loud booms. Plus, smoke continued to rise from the ground and at this distance Marinette could just detect the hint of something burning. Marinette fully stood, the sense of something being wrong screaming at her.

“Someone tampered with the circle, and I don’t think Chloe failed at her summoning,” Marinette uttered, as the stands suddenly shook violently.

Screams filled the air and Marinette was knocked back into her seat where she instantly activated her shields around Alya, Nino, and Adrien. It was a good thing she did because a second later the ground in the center of the circle suddenly exploded up and away, showering people all over with hot debris. Within seconds chaos reigned, as people fled their seats and screams echoed all around as a giant arm seemed to extend up out of the glowing red hole.

“What the hell did she summon?” Alya yelled, holding onto Marinette as the last few people in their row scrambled past them. Neither girl had tried to run away since it had been practically impossible with all the people around them, and since the stands were rapidly emptying Marinette hauled Alya up.

“Chloe didn’t summon! There was a secondary circle beneath hers and it siphoned off her power to activate! I don’t know what that thing is, but we need to run!” Marinette answered in a panic, shoving Alya out past her.

“Wait, what about Chloe?” Alya demanded, and Marinette turned realizing that instead of running away when the giant arm had come from the ground, Chloe had fainted.

“Adrien!” Marinette yelped, really not wanting to go down there, but she also realized that there was no one else moving to help the spoiled girl either. Adrien leaped off her shoulder, growing huge before his paws hit the ground. Swinging onto his back Marinette was held up as Alya grabbed her foot, nearly yanking her back off.

“I’m coming too! You’re going to need help!” Alya cried.

Marinette didn’t bother trying to argue with her and simply swung her up behind her, even as Nino gave a sharp bark.

“Hang on!” Adrien snarled and he was off, covering the stairs in a bound and leaping right into the arena where a shoulder and multifaceted eye was rising from the hole. Smoke still poured from the opening as they raced to Chloe’s side and Marinette realized that what she thought was a simple hole was actually an open portal. It was a seething mass of dark colors that only looked black from a distance. Mostly dark brown colors swirled, but a deep crimson and indigos were also present, making the surface of the portal look like waves. A mouth followed the eye, both set into a misshapen, elongated head, and the beast screamed sending a wall of flames right at them. Marinette swore as Adrien dumped the two of them off his back, nearly on top of Chloe, and braced his body directly in front of them. Flames engulfed them a moment later and even through two layers of shielding, Marinette could still feel the heat.  
The flames cut out and Nino darted up to Adrien giving a sharp bark. The two of them were nose to nose until, suddenly, Adrien turned to Marinette, switching to his Halfling form.

“Can you shield us and Chloe, Marinette? We are going to have to fight that thing together and I need to talk to Alya,” Chat asked.

“I’ll just have to,” Marinette murmured, swiftly sketching a shielding spell around Chloe with Alya’s help. “I’m not leaving you out here alone, since I know you are going to have to fight until the adults can get back in here.”

Chat grinned at her, the two of them bumping fists as she took the forward position once she finished, leaving a curious Alya to stare up at him. Nino moved to sit beside Chat, and she looked between them and Marinette, who threw up another shield as the demon loosened another attack in their direction. This time Marinette curved the shield, turning the power of the attack back upon the demon beast.

“Alya, you need to trust Nino,” Chat said, ignoring the demon beast that was trying to pull itself further into their world.

Alya looked up at Nino, confused. “Trust him? Of course I trust him, he’s… he’s mine. He’s part of me.”

Chat shook his head. “No, you need to trust him with your magic. Your bond isn’t quite right because you sealed your magic from him instinctively, the moment you two connected. It’s why you are having such a hard time communicating and stuff.”

“I… I did?” Alya gasped, looking to Nino who nodded looking rather mournful. “I’m so sorry!”

“He needs to help fight or else this demon is going to pull free into our world. Trust him, Alya,” Chat said, simply then moved up next to Marinette.

Nino moved forwards until he sat right in front of Alya, head cocked to the side. He whined a little and Alya reached out pressing her forehead to his.

“I didn’t know,” Alya whispered, reaching down the minute bond the two of them had.

Alya had wondered why the bond between them was so thin. Why the magic shared was so little. Now she realized that Nino had been sharing all of his magic. He was wide open to her, letting her take anything she needed or wanted, while she was totally sealed off from him. It wasn’t fair and without a second thought Alya smashed the doors to her magic wide open, making the bond between them swell and snap into its full glory. Magic thrummed between them and Alya opened her eyes to peer into a set of golden pools surrounded by a deep orange color.

“Now that was a head rush,” Nino said, and somehow his voice was exactly like the one she had heard whispering sometimes in her mind.

“Nino?” Alya asked and Nino pulled back slightly to nod.

“We need to help them fight. Can you, or do you need to freak out first?” Nino asked, as fire blazed past them.

“You were a dog,” Alya stated, still unsure.

Nino shook his head, causing ears, fox looking ears to be precise, to twitch and fold flat. “I am a Lycanthrope. Vulpean subclass, to be specific. I’m like Adrien, but our bond is still so new I needed some of your magic to take my other forms.”

“Nino! I could use your help!” Chat snapped, as he was knocked back by a blast of fire. His baton was spinning before him destroying the worst of the flames, while Marinette's pink shield was holding off the rest.

Nino’s ears fell flat. “Can we finish this later?”

Alya nodded, scrambling to her feet. “Take as much magic as you need. I’ll be fine.”

Nino nodded and darted out, Chat on his fox-like tail as they dove towards the demon beast that was still hauling itself up from the portal inch by inch. Alya practically flew to Marinette’s side, trying not to gawk as she summoned lightning to smash into the demon in an attempt to drive it back into the portal.

“Are you ok?” Marinette demanded.

“Um… Nino is like Adrien, you just summoned lightning, and a literal demon is clawing its way into our world. I don’t think anything is ok, Marinette,” Alya managed, throwing out a handful of seeds.

“Well at least you didn’t pass out from shock this time,” Marinette chuckled, as the seeds burst into life, swarming towards the demon. “The portal is unstable so if we can shove the demon back into the hole it should snap shut on its own.”

“What are we waiting for then?! Let’s go!” Alya cried, running towards the demon with Marinette rushing after her.

Under Alya’s control, the plants swarmed around one of the demon’s arms and the beast howled when the thorns dug in. Nino scurried up the vines, foxfire trailing after him like a curtain, burning at the demon and making it flinch away. Redoubling all of their shields, Marinette looked for Chat, worried that he had been hit by her lightning power. She spotted him as Chat leaped at the demon, his claws fizzing with black bubbles as he struck at the beast’s eye. The blow landed, slamming the demon back, and for a second Marinette thought that the demon would retreat on its own, fading back into the portal to escape them. Instead, the demon seemed to explode, the ground around it bursting outwards in a wall of projections that caught both girls. Hot debris, rocks, and the following concussive wave slammed into them, smashing them flat to the stone floor. Marinette's vision darkened as she hit the ground and something black crashed into the ground, filling her field of vision a second later. For a brief moment Marinette thought she had passed out completely, and then her hand hit fur.

“A-Adrien?!” Marinette called, forcing herself to a semi upright position.

Adrien uncurled himself from a black ball of fur. “Owww, that would have hurt far more if I’d remained in the Halfling form,” he hissed, and the two of them looked up to see the demon recovering, while Nino was back in a dog-like form, pawing at Alya. His form was no longer a German shepherd, but Marinette didn’t have the time to think of what he now was.

“We need more help, Adrien, and something isn’t right. We should have back up by now. Adults should have arrived to force that thing back into the portal,” Marinette hissed, looking around the stands and finding no one around. No adults were present, no curious eyes or good doers had remained or returned to even try to assist.  
Adrien shook his head. “The wards inside the stands are gone, so no alert can get out. Plus, I noticed that someone set a locking spell to the outside of the building. Once everyone fled the area they wouldn’t be able to get back in. I think we are on our own.”

“Then we need more power,” Marinette murmured, cuddling Adrien to her chest as the demon slashed itself free of the thorny vines.

“That can be arranged… just, if you lose control, aim it at the demon,” Adrien advised, pushing at her arm to expose the butterfly mark there. “I’m sorry, but this is going to hurt.”

Marinette didn’t have time to disagree or even ask what Adrien was about to do. Part of her knew it would come to this and as Adrien slashed his claws over the butterfly mark, Marinette felt her magic buck in answer. The butterfly seemed to wiggle just under her skin and Adrien sank his teeth into the mark, somehow not contacting her skin. With a quick jerk he pulled it from her arm, crushing it between his teeth, making it vanish into purple dust. Deep within her, as Adrien pulled the butterfly free, she felt a popping sensation, like a cork coming out of a bottle. Now, as she sat there, magic welled from her very core, free at last and filled her, burning through any layers of control she had. In an effort to keep some semblance of control, she funneled it down her bond to Adrien and Alya, who sat up with a yelp, scaring the hell out of Nino.

“Marinette?!” Alya cried, turning to her because suddenly she was glowing orange and she could feel Marinette's magic permeating through her own, replenishing her energy. “Oh gods, girl, you are glowing!”

Marinette looked down at her hands and realized she was glowing a deep crimson, like she had put on a body suit. Black spots swam across the surface of the crimson, and Marinette knew it was Adrien's power mixing with her own, helping her keep control. At her side, Adrien transformed into his Halfling form, his eyes burning impossibly bright.

“Shall we, My Lady?” Chat asked, his tail twitching in excitement, as his green aura came to life around him.

“Let’s do it before my magic gives out!” Marinette shot back, and sprinted forwards as the demon managed to pull a third arm up out of the portal. “Alya! Throw more vines! We need to force it back in!”

“Right!” Alya cried, scrambling to her feet, as Nino transformed and gave her a hand.

Marinette ran full tilt at the demon, the smell of ash making her eyes water even as she conjured. Fresh, bladed, air blasted away from her, battering the demon’s third arm and making it slip backwards into the portal. The demon howled, slamming one of its free arms into the ground, sending a shockwave of rocks at them. This time Marinette was ready for it and she blasted the air spell again, creating a shield that deflected the stones. Chat pulled ahead his claws glowing a fierce green as he leaped into the air, slashing down to send four green jagged lines of power right into the demon’s chest. Nino flew off to the one side, foxfire hammering at the demon, as vines sprang to life in his wake. The vines lashed at the demon and Marinette called lightning forth again, striking the demon down as the vines secured themselves across it. Hitting the edge of the circle Marinette slapped a palm to the vines, feeling Alya’s magic surging through them.

An idea struck her as Chat unleashed another attack, and Marinette yelled, “Chat, Nino, keep it busy, I have an idea!”

Through their bond and magic, knowing somehow that Alya would be able to hear her, Marinette called, “We need to weave your vines into a repelling circle. With my power behind it, it should be enough to force this thing back!” 

“Lets do it!” Alya agreed, her mind fizzing with excitement as Marinette guided the vines into the proper pattern needed to repel.

Chat and Nino did their jobs keeping the demon’s attention on them and away from trying to sever the vines as they grew into the proper shape. The boys didn’t have a ton of room to maneuver and Marinette poured more magic into their bonds as she tried to hurry the vines’ growth.

“Done. Get out!” Marinette screamed, making both boys leap to the vines and out of the circle. Their feet hit the ground, holding onto the vines for support, as Marinette joined hands with Alya, before slapping their palms down on the vines.

“Repel!” Both girls yelled as one, and the vines blazed into a rainbow as all four of their magics combined.

A loud fwump echoed as the vines shredded themselves tossing all four of them off their feet. The demon had no chance against such power and was slammed back through the portal. The moment the demon sank out of sight the portal snapped shut, leaving deep black score marks and the summoning lines that had been used to summon such a thing. Bits and pieces of the vines collapsed across the marks as all four teens groaned. Their individual glows were gone and Marinette felt strangely empty as she forced herself to sit up.

“Is everyone in one piece?” Marinette called into the silence and groans were her answer.

Chat made it to his feet first, only to move over to Marinette and help her up to her feet. Nino had fallen back into his animal form, although now instead of a dog Marinette realized he held the form of a maned wolf. Alya clung to his fur as he helped pull her upright and she whispered something to him, making his tail wag.

“That’s going to cause some questions,” Chat muttered, wondering why Nino had hidden his true animal form in the first place.

Marinette laughed. “This whole mess is going to cause some questions! Matter of fact we should probably get out of here before someone figures out how to get in!”

Chat agreed, dropping into his animal form although he grew to be large enough for Marinette to ride. To his surprise, Marinette didn’t try to argue with him and simply climbed onto his back.

“Alya we need to leave,” Marinette called, feeling the first hints of weariness wash through her.

Alya trudged to her, but before she could climb on behind Marinette, Nino yipped then grew larger himself. “That works too,” Alya chuckled, scrambling onto his back.

They all four headed towards one of the open doors, since Adrien knew of a backway out, but they paused for a second at Chloe’s side, wondering what in the world they should do with the girl. After a swift debate they decided to leave her since help should soon arrive, and Adrien erased their shielding lines from existence, so the girls couldn’t be traced by their magic. They made it out of the arena without any problems and Marinette hid the four of them from view since riding on the back of giant animals was a little obvious. The boys shifted back into their smaller animal forms when they got close to Marinette's house and were immediately swept into a group hug by her parents when they walked through the doors.

The next few days were utter chaos in their world. When the adults finally broke through the locking spell on the arena all they found were the scorch marks and Chloe who was still unconscious. This had caused quite a stir since everyone seemed to realize that Chloe certainly hadn’t sent the demon back, but no one stepped forward to claim they had done it. The mayor had offered a reward for whoever had saved his precious daughter but, other than a few con artists, no one came to claim the prize. Marinette and Alya, along with their familiars, lay low to the point that no one even noticed Alya’s familiar had taken a different form. Marinette traveled to the familiar world to learn control over her magic and neither Tiki nor Plagg were pleased when they realized what had happened at the arena. The demon had been a plant by Hawkmoth to upset Marinette's summoning, since he knew that she had already bonded with Adrien making her summoning a near certain success. However he hadn’t realized that Marinette had already summoned so his trap was sprung on the wrong person entirely. It left Marinette confused as to why a powerful wizard would bother trying to sabotage a teen’s summoning, but Tiki and Plagg explained it to her one evening before she had to return home.

“You have to understand, Marinette,” Tiki called, brushing her sweaty bangs away from her eyes “You are a rare child who is an endless wellspring of power. You were far stronger than you should have been as a child and you only grew stronger when you bonded with Adrien. Hawkmoth’s power merely hid your potential rather than killing it, and I think he realized that far too late. You see there is an imbalance in the magical world right now that Hawkmoth caused and with every imbalance someone is born with the power to fix it. You have that power, Marinette, and even though it’s still very young, you will grow into that power and you will fix what has been broken.”

Marinette balked at the thought of such a responsibility. “But, Tiki! I don’t want to go saving the world or anything, I just want to be a stitch witch!”

Tiki had laughed and Adrien had crawled into her lap, giving her comfort, while Plagg patted her on the head. “That’s too bad, kid. You can still be a stitch witch in your free time, but the older you get the more you will be called upon to fix magical problems along with that fox-kit. There are more of you out there but you will act as the beacon that draws them all together. Don’t fret too much. We are here and we will help protect you until you are truly ready to step into your destiny. It won’t be for a few years so, for now, sit back, relax, and learn how to fight properly.”

Plagg’s words resonated within her as she finally got home and went through the motions of getting ready for bed. Since the summonings had been messed up they still had several more days of free time while the other kids summoned in private. Chloe hadn’t managed to summon when she was given a second chance and Marinette felt somewhat relieved that she would no longer have to deal with the spoiled girl. Finally, Marinette crawled into bed and Adrien jumped up beside her, shifting into his human form.

“Did Plagg scare you?” Adrien asked, concerned for Marinette, since she had been so quiet.

“I-I don’t want to save the world, Adrien. I just… I just want to be a stitch witch that earns enough to be happy. I just want to be with you and someday…” Her cheeks turned red and she groaned, planting her face into her knees.

Adrien chuckled, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug. “Hey, don’t worry too much. Tiki and Plagg and the other guardians are holding the worst off while we figure out what we are supposed to. We are not going to be called upon tomorrow. Like Tiki said, this is a marathon, not a sprint. We’ve got this. One day we will have our own little house and you will have a stitch shop and maybe we can raise a kit or two of our own.”

“Adrien!” Marinette yelped, her face bright red as she jerked away from him.

Adrien laughed and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “It’s a good future, Marinette. We will make it happen.”

Marinette was still blushing furiously when her mom came up to say goodnight and pat Adrien on his head, since he had reverted back to his cat form. Flicking the lights off, Marinette slumped back into her bed, wiggling around to get comfy. The future Adrien had painted was wonderful, and with a bit of a start Marinette realized she wanted that future more than anything in the world. It would be hard, but she would do everything in her power to earn it. Acceptance flowed through her as she drifted off to sleep, unlocking the last barrier that had held her magic back. At that moment the call went out waking the ancient magics, heralding the rise of a new age.


End file.
